'Atara

the village in the Jenin Governorate al-Attara yes 'Atara Arabic Arabic عطارة Latin Attara (official)Ataroth (unofficial) Municipality type D (Village council) Atara272.jpg View of 'Atara Palestine Location of 'Atara within Palestine 32 00 09 N 35 12 23 E region:PS inline,title Palestine grid 169/156 State State of Palestine Governorate Ramallah and al-Bireh Founded Village council Control Israel Israel dunam 9.5 9545 February 2018 Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Downloads/book2364-1.pdf Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) State of Palestine 64–82 2023-10-24 2492 2017 auto Name meaning Attara, AtarothPalmer, 1881, p. 225 Atara (ar عطارة Atâra) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 15 kilometers north of Ramallah in the central West Bank. It is situated along a mountain ridge line with four peaks and is built upon the second highest point in the West Bank at 810 meters above sea level.The Struggles of a Palestinian Community due to the West Bank Closure https://web.archive.org/web/20051222091048/http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=126 December 22, 2005 Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem. 2001-02-02.'Atara The Palestinian Association of Cultural Exchange 'Atara's total land area consists of 9,545 dunams, most of which is cultivable. Location 'Atara is located 10.7 km mi us (horizontally) north of Ramallah. It is bordered by Silwad to the east, 'Abwein to the north, Burham, 'Ajjul and Umm Safa to the west, and Bir Zeit to the south. Atara Village profile, ARIJ, p. 4 History Sherds from the Iron Age I,Finkelstein et al., 1997, p. 429 Iron Age II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, ByzantineDauphin, 1998, p. 827 and Mamluk eras have been found. Edward Robinson identified 'Atara with the Biblical Ataroth mentioned in the Book of Joshua 16:2.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p. 80 However, some modern authorities prefer to place Ataroth elsewhere.Tsafrir, Di Segni and Green, 1994, p. 71 Kh. 'Aujah el-Foqa (Ataroth) — an Iron Age Fortified City in the Jordan Valley Adam Zertal Adam Zertal Dror Ben-Yosef Oren Cohen Ron Be'eri amp Palestine Exploration Quarterly 141 2 2009 104–123 10.1179/174313009x437819 161233235 Ottoman era In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. In 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 55 Muslim households who paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olives, vineyards or fruit trees, and goats or beehives; a total of 4,300 Akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 114 In the 17th-19th centuries, 'Atara was located in the nahiya of Bani Zeid. Adult males were required to pay 58-60 akçe to the Ottoman government in Jerusalem.Singer, 1994, p. 59 It was also noted as a Muslim village.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p. 125 The French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village in 1870, and estimated it to have about 300 inhabitants.Guérin, 1875, p. 169 An official Ottoman village list from about the same time (1870) showed that 'Atara had a total of 80 houses and a population of 225, though the population count included men only.Socin, 1879, p. 144 It was also noted to be in the Beni Zeid districtHartmann, 1883, p. 106, also found 80 houses In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Attara as a large village, seemingly ancient, in a conspicuous position on a hill, with olives round it.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 289 In 1896 the population of Atara was estimated to be about 480 persons.Schick, 1896, p. 124 British Mandate of Palestine At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine, Atara had a population of 407 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-District of Ramallah, p. 16 increasing in the 1931 census to 559 Muslims in 133 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 47 In 1922, the Jewish National Fund established a moshav on 500 dunams of land. Known as Ataroth, it was one of the first Zionist hill settlements.Jewish Villages in Israel Jewish National Fund 1949 Hamadpis Liphshitz Press, pg 6 Jerusalem 191 In the 1945 statistics the population of 'Atara was 690 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 26 while the total land area was 9,545 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 64 Of this, 3,524 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,550 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 111. while 45 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 161 Jordanian era In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, 'Atara came under Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,110 inhabitants.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24 Post-1967 Since the Six-Day War in 1967, 'Atara has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 903, of whom 61 originated from the Israeli territory.http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/1967_census/vol_1_tab_2.pdf The 1967 Census of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Digitized Version Perlmann, Joel November 2011 – February 2012 Levy Economics Institute 23 January 2018 After the 1995 accords, 40.8% of village land has been defined as Area A land, 43.8% as Area B, while the remaining 15.4% is Area C. Israel has confiscated a total of 163 dunams of land from the village in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Ateret.'Atara Town Profile ARIJ, pp. 17–18 In 2002, 95-year-old Atara resident Fatima Hassan became the oldest Palestinian fatality in the Second Intifada when the taxi she was in was shot at by Israeli soldiers. Witnesses said the car was waiting in a long line of cars and soldiers smashed the windows before firing. An Israeli military source said soldiers fired at the taxi after it ignored orders to halt on a prohibited road.Assadi, Mohammad. Palestinian Woman, 95, is Shot Dead by Israeli Soldiers https://web.archive.org/web/20070609133650/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1204-03.htm June 9, 2007 Reuters. 2002-12-04. Following the establishment of an Israeli outpost near the village in August 2025,   a series of coordinated attacks, including  incursions and harassment, grazed livestock between shelters, damaged fodder, obstructed access to grazing land, and threats of violence. Consequently, in January 2026 herders were displaced from their homes in area B on the outskirts of the village to a more populated  area with  limited access to grazingHumanitarian Situation Update #354 West Bank https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-354-west-bank Sanctuaries 'Atara contains two sanctuaries for saintly figures. The village's old mosque encases the Sanctuary of I'mar. There used to stand a Byzantine church. Shrine of Sheikh al-Qatrawani Maqam Sheikh al-Qatrawani 300px|right|thumb|The Mamluk period Maqam Sheikh al-Qatrawani shrine in 2017. The historic maqam of Sheikh al-Qatrawani is located on the Dahrat Hamoud hill about 1.5 km south-west of Atara.Village sites Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange.Taha, Hamdan. The Sanctuary of Sheikh al-Qatrawani Studium Biblicum Franciscanum - Jerusalem.Canaan, 1927, pp. 51-52 The shrine is named after a local holy man, Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatrawani, who is believed to have died here with miraculous happenings. It is built during the Mamluk period in the 16th century, as part of a series of watchtowers looking over the nearby coast. Demographics Emigration surged between 1952 and 1955 to the Gulf Arab states, due to poor economic conditions in the West Bank. Several others moved to Ramallah and Jerusalem for work. By 1961, the population was 1,110, however, it decreased tremendously after the 1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel captured and occupied the West Bank from Jordan. The village population slowly grew to 903 in 1982, then 976 in 1987.Welcome to 'Atara Palestine Remembered. In the first census taken by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in 1997, 'Atara's population reached 1,661, of which 92 were Palestinian refugees (5.6%).Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status https://web.archive.org/web/20081119061257/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/phc_97/ram_t6.aspx 2008-11-19 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The gender make-up was 50.2% male and 49.8% female.Palestinian Population by Locality, Sex and Age Groups in Years https://web.archive.org/web/20081119061326/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/phc_97/ram_t1.aspx 2008-11-19 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). According to a PCBS estimate, 'Atara had a population of approximately 2,400 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.Projected Mid -Year Population for Ramallah & Al Bireh Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 https://web.archive.org/web/20090304011608/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/populati/pop07.aspx March 4, 2009 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics In the PCBS census in 2007, 'Atara had a population of 2,270, of which 1,139 were males and 1,131 females. There 495 housing units and the average household size consisted of 5.5 family members.2007 Census Final Results https://web.archive.org/web/20101210081942/http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_PCBS/Downloads/book1487.pdf December 10, 2010 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics By 2017, the village had a population of 2,492. Economy Until the early 1950s, 'Atara's inhabitants were dependent on agriculture as a main source of income. After 1967, many inhabitants began to work in Israel. As a result, agricultural production has been further reduced and a substantial portion of 'Atara's economy became dependent residents working abroad. Transportation is an issue in the village, with only one road being able to access through Bir Zeit.Publications: Atara https://web.archive.org/web/20070811215036/http://www.pace.ps/publications/site.html August 11, 2007 The Palestinian Association of Cultural Exchange Eggs are a primary agricultural product and there are eleven egg farms in the village. Olives are also widely produced and are delivered to an oil pressing factory in the town of 'Arura, where olive oil is produced. Israeli checkpoints around 'Atara, as well as the harvest of 'Atara's olive crop by Israeli settlers from Ateret has effectively strained the village's economy. 40.8% of village land is defined as Area A land, 43.8% as Area B, while the remaining 15.4% is defined as Area C. Israel has confiscated 163 dunums of the village land in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Ateret. Atara Village profile, ARIJ, pp. 17-18 References 25em Bibliography Barron, J.B. Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 Government of Palestine 1923 Canaan T. Tawfiq Canaan https://archive.org/details/MohammedanSaintsAndSanctuariesInPalestine Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine 1927 London Luzac & Co. (p. 269) Conder C.R. Claude Reignier Conder Kitchener H.H. Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener 1882 https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology London Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund 2 Dauphin C. Claudine Dauphin La Palestine byzantine, Peuplement et Populations https://books.google.com/books?id=FC1mAAAAMAAJ III : Catalogue BAR International Series 726 1998 Archeopress Oxford fr 0-860549-05-4 Finkelstein, I. Israel Finkelstein Lederman, Zvi 1997 Highlands of many cultures https://books.google.com/books?id=Wb4xmgEACAAJ Tel Aviv Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section 965-440-007-3 First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics 1964 http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensus1961bits.pdf Village Statistics, April, 1945 http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics 1945 Guérin V. Victor Guérin Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine https://archive.org/details/descriptiongogr04gugoog 2: Samarie, pt. 2 1875 L'Imprimerie Nationale Paris fr Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html S. Hadawi Sami Hadawi 1970 Palestine Liberation Organization Research Centre Hartmann M. Martin Hartmann Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871) Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 6 102–149 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ 1883 Hütteroth W.-D. Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth K. Abdulfattah Kamal Abdulfattah Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century https://books.google.com/books?id=wqULAAAAIAAJ 1977 Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft 3-920405-41-2 Kahle, P.E. Paul E. Kahle Volkserzählungen aus Palästina https://books.google.com/books?id=Iio2AQAAMAAJ 1918 Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht (Cited in Hamdan Taha) Mills, E. Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas Government of Palestine Jerusalem 1932 Palmer E.H. Edward Henry Palmer 1881 https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft 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 Robinson E. Edward Robinson (scholar) Smith E. Eli Smith 1841 https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearc00smitgoog Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838 Boston Crocker & Brewster 2 Robinson E. Edward Robinson (scholar) Smith E. Eli Smith 1841 https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838 Boston Crocker & Brewster 3 Schick C. Conrad Schick Zur Einwohnerzahl des Bezirks Jerusalem Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 19 120–127 https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftdesde19deut 1896 https://books.google.com/books?id=mrsAw_mk1d0C&pg=PA59 Palestinian peasants and Ottoman officials: rural administration around sixteenth-century Jerusalem Singer A. Amy Singer (historian) 3rd, illustrated Cambridge University Press 1994 0-521-47679-8 Socin A. Albert Socin Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 2 135–163 https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftdesde01deut 1879 Tsafrir, Y. Yoram Tsafrir Leah Di Segni Judith Green (TIR): Tabula Imperii Romani: Judaea, Palaestina https://books.google.com/books?id=8XJtAAAAMAAJ Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Jerusalem 1994 965-208-107-8 External links Welcome To 'Atara Atara, Welcome to Palestine Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons Atara factsheet, Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ) Atara Village profile, ARIJ Atara aerial photo, ARIJ Locality Development Priorities and Needs in 'Atara Town, ARIJ Category:Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate Category:Villages in the West Bank Category:Municipalities of Palestine