Budrus is located 21 kilometers (13 mi) north-west ofRamallah. It is bordered byQibya andNi'lin to the east, Qibya to the north, theGreen line to the west, and Ni'lin to the south.[3]
History
"Budrus" is Arabic for "Peter" and in ancient times the village was known asPatris. The site of the modern village is just east of the1949 armistice line, while the ancient village was probably 2 km away at Khirbet Budrus, on the west side of the line.[4][5]
Under the name of Patris (or Patros), Budrus was mentioned in the JewishTosefta (Demai 1)[6] as being included in the boundary of the southern mountains ofJudea, at the entrance of the King's Mountains.[7] The same passage mentions a localfair held at the village in Talmudic times.[8]
In 1596, Budrus appeared inOttomantax registers as being in theNahiya of Ramla of theLiwa of Gaza. It had a population of 46Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives or summer crops, goats or beehives and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 3,608akçe. 7/24 of the revenue went to aWaqf.[11]
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.[14] An official Ottoman village list from about the same year, 1870, showed thatEbdus 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 byQibya andNi'lin.[15][16]
In 1882,PEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described Budrus as "a small village, with olive-groves andcisterns. It has near it two sacred places (maqams), and a graveyard near one (Imam 'Aly) on the west."[17]
In the1945 statistics the population was 510, all Muslims,[20] while the total land area was 7,935dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[21] Of this, 636 dunums were plantation or irrigated, 2,412 were allotted tocereals,[22] while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.[23]
After the1995 accords, 11.2% of Budrus’s land was classified asArea B, the remaining 88.8% asArea C. Israel has confiscated land from Budrus for the construction of theIsraeli West Bank barrier, surrounding the village to the north and west, cutting off many villagers from their land.[25] Frequent protests against the wall have occurred since 2003.[26][27]
High school in Budrus
A boy from the village, 16-year-old Samir Awad, was shot to death in February 2013 near theIsraeli West Bank barrier, where he reportedly had gone with friends to throw stones at soldiers. According to an investigation byB'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.[28][29] 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.[30] In 2018, the Israeli prosecution decided not to charge the Israeli soldiers involved.[31]
See also
Budrus - a film about the non-violent protests of Budrus residents against the building of theIsraeli West Bank barrier in the village.
^Polly Pallister-Wilkins (2009). "Radical Ground: Israeli and Palestinian Activists and Joint Protest Against the Wall".Social Movement Studies.8 (4):393–407.doi:10.1080/14742830903234262.S2CID145386093.
