Biddu () is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate, located 6 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 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 Jerusalem. 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 b.d.d.
Bellarmino Bagatti saw several buildings he dated to the 12th century. Southwest of the village centre was the wali of Sheikh Abu Talal, possibly built on the ruins of a Crusader church.Pringle, 1993, p. 160Pringle, 1997, p. 33
Northeast of the village is Horvat Diab, an archaeological site containing the remains of a Jewish farmhouse or estate of the Second Temple period, along with rock-cut tombs 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 of Jerusalem.Toledano, 1984, p. 291, has Biddu at location 31°50′10″N. 35°08′30″E
In 1738 Richard Pococke records passing by the village, which was near Beit Surik.Pococke, 1745, vol II, p. 49, cited in Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 65
In 1838 Edward RobinsonRobinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, pp. 133, 141Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 66 described it as a Muslim village in the Beni Malik area, west of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 124
In May 1863 Victor Guérin described Biddou as sitting on a high plateau. He said there were 150 inhabitants and some of the houses seemed very old.Guérin, 1868, p. 362
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 carved in the rock. The Crusader road from Ramle to Nabi Samwil ran through the village.Socin, 1879, p. 148 Martin Hartman counted 71 houses.Hartmann, 1883, p. 118
In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as a moderate sized village on a rocky hill with a well in the northeast.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 17
In 1896 the population of Biddu was estimated to be about 546 persons.Schick, 1896, p. 126
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 conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Biddu had a population 252, all Muslims.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 15 This had increased in the 1931 census to 399, still all Muslim, in 88 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 39
In the 1945 statistics the population of Biddu consisted of 520 MuslimsGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 24 and the land area was 5,392 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 56 Of this, 334 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,258 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102 while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152
Jordanian era On the night of 19 April 1948 the village was attacked by the Palmach.Morris, 1987, p.112.Morris, 2004, p. 235 The attacking force was commanded by Yosef Tabenkin, based in Jerusalem. They were later to become the Harel Brigade of the Israeli army. The attack came from Beit Surik which had been captured earlier that night. Biddu was subjected to a short bombardment from a Davidka after which Palmach sappers entered the village and demolished its houses,Allon, Yigal (1970) The Making of Israel's Army. Vallentine, Mitchell – London. . pp.194,195Morris, 2004, p. 345 and effectively stripped it of its inhabitants. Before withdrawing from both Biddu and Beit Surik, under Moshe Dayan's direction, a special unit contaminated the villages' wells with a biological warfare agent consisting of typhus and diphtheria 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.Benny Morris, Benjamin Z. Kedar, ‘Cast thy bread’: Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War Middle Eastern Studies 19 September 2022, pages =1–25 p.5.
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Biddu came under Jordanian rule from 1948 until 1967.
In 1961, the population of Biddu was 1,444.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 23
Post-1967
Since the Six-Day War 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 dunams of Biddus land for the Israeli settlement of Har Adar (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, 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 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.OCHA
In 2004, initially peaceful demonstrations against the separation barrier in Biddu turned violent when the IDF cleared the area.Conal Urquhart, 'Israelis kill two villagers in barrier protests,' The Guardian 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 Lynfield,'A West Bank town tries to protest the wall nonviolently,' The Christian Science Monitor, 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 Welcome To Biddu Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17: IAA, Wikimedia commons West Bank's vulnerable olive growers, Al Jazeera Biddu Town (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ) Biddu Town Profile, ARIJ Biddu aerial photo, ARIJ Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Biddu, ARIJ
Facebook, Biddu official facebook page