Biddu () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

town in the Jerusalem Governorate, located 6 kilometers northwest of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

, the town had a population of 8,231 in 2017. Biddu is at an altitude of 806m to 834m. Giv'on HaHadasha lies 2 km east of Biddu. Biddu is located (horizontally) north-west of

. It is bordered by Beit Iksa to the east, Beit Ijza to the north, Al Qubeiba to the west, and Beit Surik to the south.

History

According to Roy Marom, the name derives from the

Semitic root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...

b.d.d. Bellarmino Bagatti saw several buildings he dated to the 12th century. Southwest of the village centre was the

wali The term ''wali'' is most commonly used by Muslims to refer to a saint, or literally a "friend of God".John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); John ...

Sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

Abu Talal, possibly built on the ruins of a Crusader church. Northeast of the village is Horvat Diab, an archaeological site containing the remains of a Jewish farmhouse or estate of the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

, along with

rock-cut tomb A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

s in the ''kokhim'' style, and the ruins of a public structure that may have been a synagogue.

Ottoman era

In the Ottoman tax records of the 1500s, Biddu was located in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of

. In 1738

Richard Pococke Richard Pococke (19 November 1704 – 25 September 1765)''Notes and Queries'', p. 129. was an English clergyman and writer. He was the Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church of Ireland. However, he is best kn ...

records passing by the village, which was near Beit Surik. In 1838 Edward Robinson described it as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

village in the ''Beni Malik'' area, west of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
124
/ref> In May 1863

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

described ''Biddou'' as sitting on a high plateau. He said there were 150 inhabitants and some of the houses seemed very old. Albert Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Biddu had 70 houses and a population of 247, although this count included only men. He saw a

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

carved in the rock. The Crusader road from Ramle to Nabi Samwil ran through the village. Martin Hartman counted 71 houses. In 1883 the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' described it as a moderate sized village on a rocky hill with a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

in the northeast.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p
17
/ref> In 1896 the population of Biddu was estimated to be about 546 persons. By the beginning of the 20th century, residents from Biddu settled Salbit near al-Ramla, establishing it as a dependency – or satellite village – of their home village.

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Biddu had a population 252, all Muslims.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
15
/ref> This had increased in the 1931 census to 399, still all Muslim, in 88 houses.Mills, 1932, p
39
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Biddu consisted of 520 MuslimsGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
24
/ref> and the land area was 5,392

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
56
/ref> Of this, 334 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,258 for cereals, while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.

Jordanian era

On the night of 19 April 1948 the village was attacked by the

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...

. The attacking force was commanded by Yosef Tabenkin, based in

. They were later to become the Harel Brigade of the

Israeli army The Israeli Ground Forces () are the Army, ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the GOC Army Headquarters, General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of the Gen ...

. The attack came from Beit Surik which had been captured earlier that night. Biddu was subjected to a short bombardment from a

Davidka The Davidka (, ''"Little David"'' or ''"Made by David"'' ) was a homemade Israeli mortar used in Safed and Jerusalem during 1947–1949 Palestine war. Its bombs were reported to be extremely loud, but very inaccurate and otherwise of little val ...

after which Palmach

sappers A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, ...

entered the village and demolished its houses, and effectively stripped it of its inhabitants. Before withdrawing from both Biddu and Beit Surik, under

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

's direction, a special unit contaminated the villages' wells with a

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or Pathogen, infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and Fungus, fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an ...

agent consisting of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

and

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

bacteria. The purpose of such poisoning was to make Palestinian villages that had conquered but not yet occupied uninhabitable to residents seeking to return to their homes. In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule from 1948 until 1967. In 1961, the population of Biddu was 1,444.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Biddu has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 1,259, of whom 567 originated from Israeli territory. After the 1995 accords, 24.8% of Biddu's land was classified as Area B, the remaining 75.2% as Area C.Biddu Town Profile
ARIJ, p. 17 Israel has confiscated about 627

s of Biddus land for the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Har Adar Har Adar () is an Israeli settlement organized as a local council in the Seam Zone and the Maccabim sub-region of the West Bank. Founded in 1986, it had a population of in . It is located near Abu Ghosh and the Green Line on Road 425, appro ...

( Giv’at HaRadar), and 186 dunams for Giv’on Ha’hadasha.Biddu Town Profile
ARIJ, p. 18

Enclave

Biddu along with 9 other Palestinian villages, Beit Duqqu, Beit 'Anan, Beit Surik, Qatanna, al-Qubeiba, Beit Ijza, Kharayib Umm al Lahimand and at Tira form the "Biddu enclave" which, according to

Tanya Reinhart Tanya Reinhart (; 1943 – 17 March 2007) was an Israeli linguist and political activist. A frequent writer on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, she contributed columns to the Israeli centrist newspaper '' Yedioth Ahronoth'' and longer articles ...

, are imprisoned behind a wall, cut off from their orchards and farmlands that are being seized to form the real estate reserves of the Jerusalem Corridor and to create a territorial continuity with Giv'at Ze'ev.Reinhart, 2006, p
202
/ref> The enclave will be linked to Ramallah by underpasses and a road that is fenced on both sides. From the "Biddu enclave" Palestinians will travel along a fenced road that passes under a bypass road to Bir Nabala enclave, then on a second underpass under Bypass Road 443 to

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

. In 2004, initially peaceful demonstrations against the

separation barrier A separation barrier or separation wall is a Barricade, barrier, wall or fence, constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to ethnic segregation, separate peoples or cultures. A separation barrier that runs a ...

in Biddu turned violent when the IDF cleared the area.Conal Urquhart
'Israelis kill two villagers in barrier protests,'
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 27 February 2004:'Yesterday Ziad Mansoor, 23, from Biddu, said he had witnessed the shooting dead of Zacharia Eid, a father of three from a nearby village. Mr Eid had been arrested by Israelis and put in a jeep, but managed to run away, at which point he was shot, according to Mr Mansoor. He said they had been protesting because the separation barrier would ruin the future of the villages. "We will be cut off from everything we need to have for a normal life," he said. . .Periodically, a cry would go up among Palestinians that someone had been injured and an ambulance would go to the rescue. One paramedic said that at least 11 people had been wounded by live ammunition and 14 by rubber bullets.'. Biddu has become a focal point for non-violent resistance to the process of incorporating Palestinian lands into Israeli settlements.Ben Lynfiel
'A West Bank town tries to protest the wall nonviolently,'
''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'', 6 May 2004:'what sets apart the Biddu demonstrations is that they are driven by Palestinians directly affected by the fence who espouse nonviolence as a tactic amid the shootings, suicide bombings, and calls for revenge that have characterized three-plus years of conflict.' Biddu villagers promote the use of their bodies to hinder bulldozing of their terrain, and recourse to arms or violence is forbidden. Attempts to have "women only" protests, to avoid conflict, have met with defeat. In one demonstration by Israeli and local women activists in April 2004, a protest by 70 women brandishing signs and singing was broken up by tear gas, stun grenades, and mounted police. ''Diaa' A-Din 'Abd al-Karim Ibrahim Abu 'Eid'' was shot dead by gunfire during an anti-barrier demonstration on 18 April 2004.B'Tselem
West Bank Statistics ''Muhammad Fadel Hashem Rian'' and ''Zakaria Mahmoud 'Eid Salem'' were shot dead during anti-barrier demonstrations on 26 February 2004 at Beit Ijaz (a satellite village of Biddu).

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * (pp
57
59) * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17:
IAAWikimedia commons

Al Jazeera
Biddu Town (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Biddu Town Profile
ARIJ
Biddu aerial photo
ARIJ
Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Biddu
ARIJ *
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