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Battir

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This article is about the village. For other uses, see Betar (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Palestinian Authority municipality

Battir (Template:Lang-ar) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, 5 km west of Bethlehem, and southwest of Jerusalem. Habitation dates back to the Iron Age. Ancient Betar, also Bittir, Bitir, Beitar, whose name it preserves, was a second century Jewish village, the site of the final defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt. It was inhabited during the Byzantine and Islamic periods, and in the Ottoman and British Mandate censuses its population was recorded as primarily Muslim. Battir is situated just above the route of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, which served as the armistice line between Israel and Jordan from 1949 until the Six-Day War, when it was captured by Israel.

Today Battir has a population of 4,000 and is under the control of the Palestinian National Authority.

History

Antiquity

Main article: Betar (ancient)

Battir has been identified as the site of ancient Betar. The modern Palestinian village is built around the ancient site "Khirbet el-Yahud" (Arabic, meaning "ruin of the Jews" ) and "is unanimously identified with Betar, the last stronghold of the Second Revolt against the Romans, where its leader, Bar-Kochba, found his death in 135 CE."[1][2][3] "A modern agricultural terrace follows the line of the ancient fortification wall".[2] There is a tradition that the village is also the site of the tomb of the Tannaic sage Eleazar of Modi'im.[4]

Modern era

In 1596, Battir appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Quds in the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 24 Muslim households and two bachelors, and paid taxes on wheat, summercrops or fruit trees, and goats or beehives.[5]

French explorer Victor Guérin visited the place in 1860s.[6]

The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine in 1883 described Battir as a moderate sized village, on the precipitous slope of a deep valley.[7]

In the 20th century, Battir's development was linked to its location alongside the railroad to Jerusalem, which provided access to the marketplace as well as income from passengers who disembarked to refresh themselves en route.[8] After the 1948 war, the armistice line was drawn near railroad, with Battir ending up just meters to the east of Jordan's border with Israel. At least 30% of Battir's land lies on the Israeli side of the Green Line, but the villagers were allowed to keep it in return for preventing damage to the railway.[9][10]

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Battir came under Israeli control, but since the signing of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1995, it has been administered by the Palestinian National Authority.

In 1970 two Katusha rockets were fired from the village vicinity toward Jerusalem.[11]

In 2007, the village of Battir sued the Israeli Defense Ministry to try to force them to change the planned route of the Israeli West Bank barrier which would cut through part of Battir's 2,000-year old irrigation system, which is still in use. As of May 2012, Battir's lawsuit is still pending.[9][10]

In 2011 UNESCO awarded Battir a $15,000 prize for "Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes" due to its care for its ancient terraces and irrigation system.[9]

In May 2012, the Palestinian National Authority sent a delegation to UNESCO headquarters in Paris to discuss the possibility of adding Battir to its World Heritage List. The PNA's deputy minister of tourism, Hamadan Taha, said that the organization wants to "maintain it as a Palestinian and humanitarian heritage," making special note of its historic terraces and irrigation systems.[12] the nomination of Battir was blocked at the last minute because the formal submission was too late.[13]

Demographics

Village women going to market, 1913

At the time of the 1931 census, Battir had 172 houses and a population of 755 Muslims, two Christians and one Jew.[14] It had increased to 1,050 Muslims by 1945.[15]

Geography

Battir's ancient terraces, 1893

Battir is located on a hill above Wadi el-Jundi, which runs southwest through the Judean hills to the coastal plain. At an altitude of around 720m, Battir's summers are temperate, and its winters mild with the occasional snowfall.

Ancient irrigation system and terraces

Battir has a unique irrigation system that utilizes man-made terraces and a system of manually diverting water via sluice gates.[10] The Roman-era network is still in use, fed by seven springs which have provided fresh water for 2,000 years.[13][10][16] The irrigation system runs through a steep valley near the Green Line where a section of the Ottoman-era Hejaz Railway was laid. Battir's eight main clans take turns each day to water the village's crops. Hence a local saying that in Battir "a week lasts eight days, not seven."[13] According to anthropologist Giovanni Sontana of UNESCO, "There are few, if any, places left in the immediate region where such a traditional method of agriculture remains, not only intact, but as a functioning part of the village."[10]

Archaeology

An old Roman bath fed by a spring is located in the middle of the village.[10] Archaeologist D. Ussishkin dates the village to the Iron Age, and states that at the time of the Revolt it was a village of between one and two thousand people chosen by Bar Kochba for its spring, defensible hilltop location, and proximity to the main Jerusalem-Gaza road.[2] No evidence of habitation in the period immediately after the Revolt.[2] A mosaic from the late Byzantine or early Muslim period was found in Battir.[17]

Sister cities

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Battir.
  1. ^ David Ussishkin, "Soundings in Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold"
  2. ^ a b c d D. Ussishkin, Archaeological Soundings at Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold, Tel Aviv 20, 1993, pp. 66-97.
  3. ^ K. Singer, Pottery of the Early Roman Period from Betar, Tel Aviv 20, 1993, pp. 98-103.
  4. ^ אוצר מסעות - יהודה דוד אייזענשטיין
  5. ^ Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 115.
  6. ^ Guérin, 1869, p. 387 ff
  7. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 20-21
  8. ^ A Window on the West Bank, by Bret Wallach
  9. ^ a b c Daniella Cheslow (May 14, 2012). "West Bank Barrier Threatens Farms". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  10. ^ a b c d e f West Bank barrier threatens villagers' way of life. BBC News. 2012-05-09.
  11. ^ Yosef Zuriel (21.12.1970). "Four women were saved when Katusha missile "plowed" apartment in Jerusalem". Maariv. p. 9. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "PNA intensifies efforts to add more sites to World Heritage list". Xinhua News Agency. May 30, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  13. ^ a b c A Palestinian Village Tries to Protect a Terraced Ancient Wonder of Agriculture. New York Times. 2012-06-25.
  14. ^ E. Mills, ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine. p. 37.
  15. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in S. Hadawi, Village Statistics, 1945. PLO Research Center, 1970, p56. [1]
  16. ^ Threatened village proposed as next UNESCO world heritage site. Ma'an News Agency.
  17. ^ Claudine Dauphin (1998). La Palestine byzantine, Peuplement et Populations, Vol. III : Catalogue. BAR International Series 726. Oxford: Archeopress. p. 911.
  18. ^ [2] Britain Palestine Twinning Network.

Bibliography

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