Battir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battir (; Arabic بتير) is an ancient village located four kilometers from Bethlehem to the southeast, and Jerusalem to the northeast. It has a population of almost 5,000 inhabitants. Battir sits just above the main railroad from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which also served as the armistance line between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967. Today Battir is administered by the Palestinian Authority.
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[edit] History
Battir is a Palestinian village, located on the hills of Palestine about 30 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. Battir is the place where Bar Kochba was crushed by Aelius Hadrian in A.D. 134. In more recent times, Battir's development was linked to its location alongside the railroad to Jerusalem, which provided both access to the city's opportunities as well as direct income from passengers who would disembark when the locomotives stopped to take on water.[1] After the 1948 war, the armistance line fell along the railroad, and Battir ended up just meters to the east of Jordan's border with Israel. After the 1967 War, Battir passed to Israeli control along with the rest of the West Bank, though since the 1995 signing of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it has been administered by the Palestinian Authority. There is some concern that the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier might negatively impact the environment in the area, especially due to Battir's proximity to the border.[2]
[edit] Geography
Battir is located on a hill above the biblical Valley of Giants (Wadi el-Jindi, Emek Rephaim),[3] which runs southwest through the Judean hills to the coastal plain and the Valley of Elah from the watershed near Jerusalem. At an altitude of around 720 meters, Battir's summers are temperate, and its winters mild with the occasional snowfall. Adjacent to it lies the Israeli settlement of Betar Illit.
