Bruqin

Bruqin
Other transcription(s)
• Arabic	إبروقين
• Also spelled	Buruqin (official) Ibruqin (unofficial)
250px
Bruqin Location of Bruqin within the Palestinian Territories
Coordinates:
Palestine grid	159/164
Governorate	Salfit
Government
• Type	Village council
• Head of Municipality	Ekremah M. Samara
Area
• Jurisdiction	13,237 dunams (13.2 km2 or 5.1 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Jurisdiction	3,236
Name meaning	Berukin

Bruqin (Arabic: إبروقين‎‎) is a Palestinian town located 13 kilometers west of Salfit in the Salfit Governorate of the northern West Bank and adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Bruchin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 3,236 in 2007. Bruqin used to be on a camel-trading route. There is evidence of Roman rule in the city due to the presence of three ancient pools and a tomb.

The main families of the town are Barakat, Sabra, Samara and Khater

History

Bruqin is an ancient site. Here French explorer Victor Guérin found a large number of cut stones in the walls of modern houses, and an ancient tomb near the village with two sepulchral chambers.

Ottoman era

The place appeared in 1596 Ottoman tax registers as Bruqin, being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 16 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, olives, and goats or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes.

In 1870, Guérin estimated that the village had 300 inhabitants. In 1882, Palestine Exploration Fund's "Survey of Western Palestine", the village (called Berukin) was described as a "moderate-sized village on the end of a spur, with a steep slope to the valley beneath, in which are springs just below the houses. On the south are caves, on the north olives."

British Mandate era

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Bruqin had a population of 367, all Muslims, while in the 1931 census, Burqin had 90 occupied houses and a population of 534, again all Muslim. In 1945 the population was 690, all Arabs, while the total land area was 12,628 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,175 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,301 for cereals, while 28 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Bruqin came under Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Bruqin has been under Israeli occupation. Its villagers state that after 1987, the toxic output from Israeli industries located in settlement areas has produced chronic health problems for local Palestinians.

Occupation of village lands

In 2014 the Shomron Regional Council began work to develop a 25-acre farm on a hill just northwest of Bruqin, forming part of 110 acres belonging to the nearby Palestinian villages of Adiq and Biddya. Though Adiq is in Area A, under Palestinian jurisdiction, its village lands lie in Area C, where Palestinian construction is prohibited, and which Israel declared its state land in 1985. Access to the farmland is through Bruqin's land, which is planted with their olive groves. The apparent intent is to create territorial continuity between the Green line and the Israeli settlement of Ariel, via new settlements such as Leshem and Bruchin. According to Bruqin villages, use of the access road is illegal, and Israel is blocking the villages' own roads to Sarta.

Economy

Around 70% of working-age males were employed in Israel as laborers prior to the Second Intifada. Today, the unemployment rate is 80%. There is agricultural work it is seasonal. Around 150 out of 500 families are dependent on aid, from the Red Cross or the Social Affairs Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority. There are two mosques, a youth club and a gym in the town. There are also three schools in the town, including an all-girls school for grades 1 to 12, a boys primary and secondary school and a boys high school. For hospital care, residents travel to Ramallah, but for emergency treatment they go to nearby Salfit.

Bruqin depends primarily on agriculture to meet its basic needs. The town's total land area is 13,237 dunams, of which 1,336 dunams is built-up area. Around 1,200 dunams are planted with orchards, especially olive, about 3,000 dunams of land is used for shepherding while approximately 8,000 dunams are used for settlement purposes, including settlements and by-pass roads.

Government

Bruqin is governed by a municipal council led by the mayor Ekremah M. Samara, who succeeded Ghassan Sabra. Elections are scheduled to occur every four years however, there has not been an election since 1996. The municipal council states the "[Israeli] occupation" as the reason.

External links

• Welcome To Buruqin/Ibruqin
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Bruqin Village Profile
• Bruchin settlement expands on lands of Bruqin village 08, October, 2011, ARIJ
• Torching 340 Trees in Bruqin – Salfit Governorate 14, November, 2011, ARIJ