Budrus () is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 31 kilometers northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 1,596 inhabitants in 2017.
Location Budrus is located north-west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Qibya and Ni'lin to the east, Qibya to the north, the Green line to the west, and Ni'lin to the south.Budrus Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 4
History "Budrus" is Arabic for "Peter" and in ancient times the village was known as Patris. The site of the modern village is just east of the 1949 armistice line, while the ancient village was probably 2 km away at Khirbet Budrus, on the west side of the line.Dauphin, 1998, p. 831Tsafrir, Di Segni and Green, 1994, p. 200
Under the name of Patris (or Patros), Budrus was mentioned in the Jewish Tosefta (Demai 1)תוספתא דמאי, פרק א as being included in the boundary of the southern mountains of Judea, at the entrance of the King's Mountains.Conder and Conder, 1880, p. 307 The same passage mentions a local fair held at the village in Talmudic times.
Archeological remains from the HellenisticRe'em, 2008, Budrus (West) and the Byzantine erasKorenfeld, 2008, Budrus (South) have been found.
Ottoman era In 1596, Budrus appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Ramla of the Liwa of Gaza. It had a population of 46 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives or summer crops, goats or beehives and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 3,608 akçe. 7/24 of the revenue went to a Waqf.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 153
In 1838, Budrus was counted as a Muslim village in the Gaza District,Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 118 noted from the tower of the White Mosque of Ramleh.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 30
In 1870, Victor Guérin saw Budrus from a distance, situated on a high hill. He was told that to the west of this village, on a neighboring hill, there were ruins with the name of Khirbet Budrus.Guérin, 1875, p. 80 An official Ottoman village list from about the same year, 1870, showed that Ebdus had a total of 28 houses and a population of 93, though the population count included only men. It also noted that it was located by Qibya and Ni'lin.Socin, 1879, p. 154 Socin took it to be in the Ramla districtHartmann, 1883, p. 140, also noted 28 houses
In 1882, PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Budrus as "a small village, with olive-groves and cisterns. It has near it two sacred places (maqams), and a graveyard near one (Imam 'Aly) on the west."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 296
British Mandate era In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Budrus had a population of 334; all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. 21 increasing in the 1931 census to 430 Muslims in a total of 98 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 19
In the 1945 statistics the population was 510, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 29 while the total land area was 7,935 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 66 Of this, 636 dunums were plantation or irrigated, 2,412 were allotted to cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 114 while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 164
Jordanian era In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Budrus came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 776 inhabitants in Budrus.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
1967-present
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Budrus has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 11.2% of Budrus’s land was classified as Area B, the remaining 88.8% as Area C. Israel has confiscated land from Budrus for the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier, surrounding the village to the north and west, cutting off many villagers from their land. Budrus Village Profile, ARIJ, pp. 15-16 Frequent protests against the wall have occurred since 2003.Gideon Levy, Alex Levac, 'In Budrus, no one will give us the rights – we have to struggle for them', at Haaretz, 27 July 2013 A boy from the village, 16-year-old Samir Awad, was shot to death in February 2013 near the Israeli West Bank barrier, where he reportedly had gone with friends to throw stones at soldiers. According to an investigation by B'tselem, he was shot while fleeing, once in the leg, and then further, while attempting to run away, once in the back and the head. A military investigation made a preliminary finding that the soldiers had fired in contravention of open-fire regulations.'B’Tselem inquiry: No justification for shooting and killing Samir ‘Awad, 16. Budrus, 15 Jan 2013,' B’Tselem 21 February 2013.IDF Probe: 80 Bullets Fired Without Justification in Death of West Bank Palestinian Ha'aretz, 16/1/2013 The house of his family was later subject to assault with concussion grenades, injuring several members, while another son, Abed, was arrested and taken to an unknown destination.Gideon Levy, Alex Levac, 'A battered house, a shattered Palestinian family,' at Haaretz, 31 May 2013. In 2018, the Israeli prosecution decided not to charge the Israeli soldiers involved.Video Shows Israeli Soldiers Shooting to Death a Palestinian Teen as He Tries to Flee in 2013 Incident, Yotam Berger, June 7, 2018, Haaretz
See also Budrus - a film about the non-violent protests of Budrus residents against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier in the village.
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links Welcome To Budrus Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons Budrus Village (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ) Budrus Village Profile, ARIJ Budrus aerial photo, ARIJ Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Budrus Village, ARIJ Israel illegally Re delineate the boundaries of the Palestinian Villages! The case of Qibya and Budrus villages 17, October, 2005