Baqa ash-Sharqiyya
| Baqa ash-Sharqiyya | |
|---|---|
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | باقه الشرقية |
| • Also spelled |
Baqa al-Sharqiyya (official) Baqa ash-Sharkiya (unofficial) |
|
A mosque's minaret in Baqa al-Sharqiyya, 2010 | |
  Baqa ash-Sharqiyya Location of Baqa ash-Sharqiyya within the Palestinian Territories | |
| Coordinates: 32°24′38.10″N 35°04′08.91″E / 32.4105833°N 35.0691417°ECoordinates: 32°24′38.10″N 35°04′08.91″E / 32.4105833°N 35.0691417°E | |
| Palestine grid | 156/201 |
| Governorate | Tulkarm |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality |
| • Head of Municipality | Muaiad Abd al-Rahman Hussein |
| Area | |
| • Jurisdiction | 4,211 dunams (4.2 km2 or 1.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Jurisdiction | 4,101 |
| Name meaning | "The eastern bouquet [of flowers]" or "The eastern Baka"[1] |
Baqa ash-Sharqiyya (Arabic: باقه الشرقية) is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, located 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) northeast of Tulkarm in the Tulkarm Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 4,101 inhabitants in 2007.[2] Refugees made up 20.4% of the Baqa ash-Sharqiyya's population in 1997.[3]
Approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) to the west, on the other side of the Green Line, lies Baqa al-Gharbiyye, ("the western bouquet of flowers") which is under Israeli jurisdiction. Both towns were originally one town, known as Baqa, until the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Prior to the Second Intifada, Baqa ash-Sharqiyya consisted of 4,000 dunams; Israel confiscated about 2,000 dunams of land in order to build the Israeli West Bank barrier.[4]
History
Baqa ash-Sharqiyya is situated at an ancient site. During early Ottoman rule, in 1596, Baqa ash-Sharqiyya was located in the nahiya of Qaqun in the Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 35 households, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats and/or bees, and a press for olives or grapes.[5][6]
In 1882 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Baqa as "a very small hamlet on high ground, with olives. It has a well to the south and a little Mukam (Muslim tomb) to the north; scattered olives surround it, and there are two or three palms close by. A few houses stand separate, on the south east, near a second Mukam, called Abu Nar ("Father of Fire")."[7] A stone with Arabic inscriptions located over the entrance of the old village mosque could be the beginning of an endowment (waqf) text.[8]
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Baqa Sharkiyeh had a population of 269, all Muslims,[9] increasing by the 1931 census to 330, still all Muslim, in 67 houses.[10]
In 1945 the population of Baqa ash-Sharqiyya consisted of 480 Arabs with a land area of 3,986 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[11] Of this, 173 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,870 for cereals,[12] while 14 dunams were built-up areas.[13]
As part of the 1949 armistice agreements following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, King Abdullah of Jordan ceded the captured Wadi Ara region to Israel in exchange for land near Hebron. This resulted in Baqa al-Gharbiyye falling on the western side of the Green Line, separated from its eastern counterpart, Baqa ash Sharqiyya. The separated towns still have close social and economic ties, however this has been reduced due to the completion of the West Bank barrier around the "Baqa enclave" of the Seam Zone.[14]
Health care
Baqa ash-Sharqiyya houses the Mother and Child Health Centre (MCH), which is used by the three surrounding Palestinian villages (Nazlat Abu Nar and An-Nazla al-Gharbiya).[15] The healthcare facilities for Baqa ash-Sharqiyya are designated as MOH level 3.[16]
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 179
- ↑ 2007 PCBS census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). p. 107.
- ↑ Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
- ↑ Baqa Al Sharqia: A Palestinian village isolated by the Segregation Wall Land Research Center. 13 August 2003.
- ↑ al-Salim, Farid. Landed Property and Elite Conflict in Ottoman Tulkarm. Jerusalem Quarterly. Autumn 2011.
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 159
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 152
- ↑ Sharon, 1999, p.88.
- ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 27
- ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 53
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 74
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 124
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 174
- ↑ Profile: Baqa Sharqiya Enclave & Qafin UNRWA
- ↑ Trapped by the Barrier: Life in a Palestinian Enclave UNRWA
- ↑ Health care Facilities Tulkarm Governorate
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 (PDF). Government of Palestine.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (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. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas (PDF). Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Sharon, Moshe (1997). Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, A 1. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-10833-5.
External links
- Welcome To Baqa al-Sharqiya
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons
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