At-Tira () is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank.
Location At Tira is located southwest of Ramallah. It is bordered by Beituniya to the east and north, Beit 'Ur al Fauqa to the north and west, Beit ‘Anan to the west, and Beit Duqqu to the south.
History Ottoman period Establishment At-Tira was not mentioned in the 16th century. It was settled later by migrants from Dura.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 358 Residents of At-Tira, along with residents in nearby villages in the Ramallah Governorate such as Beit 'Anan, Beit Ur al-Fauqa, and Dura al-Qar', trace their ancestry to the town of Dura, southwest of Hebron.Grossman, D. "The expansion of the settlement frontier of Hebron's western and southern fringes". Geography Research Forum, 5, 1982, p. 64.
19th century In 1838, in the Ottoman era, it was noted as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Malik district, west of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 124
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Tireh as: "A small hamlet on a ridge, with a large sacred tree to the north-east (Sheikh Hasan), and a spring ('Ain Jufna) in the valley to the south-west."Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 19
By the beginning of the 20th century, residents from Tira settled al-Kunayyisa near al-Ramla, establishing it as a dependency – or satellite village – of their home village.
British Mandate In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al Tireh had a population of 257 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p. 17 increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 265 Muslims, in 71 houses in Et Tira.Mills, 1932, p. 51.
In the 1945 statistics, the population of Et Tira was 330 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 26 while the total land area was 3,968 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 65 Of this, 193 dunums were used for plantations and irrigable land, 1,974 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 113 while 23 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 163
Jordanian rule In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, At-Tira came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 534 inhabitants in Tira.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
1967–present
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, At-Tira came under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 10.4% of village land was classified as Area B, while the remaining 89.6% was classified as Area C. Israel has confiscated a total of 67 dunams of land from the village to construct the Israeli settlement of Beit Horon. At Tira Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 16
At-Tira, along with 9 other Palestinian villages, Beit Duqqu, Beit 'Anan, Beit Surik, Qatanna, al-Qubeiba, Beit Ijza, Kharayib Umm al Lahimand and Biddu 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
References
Bibliography
External links Welcome To al-Tira At Tira Village (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, ARIJ At Tira Village Profile, ARIJ At Tira photo, ARIJ Locality Development Priorities and Needs in At Tira Village, ARIJ Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17: IAA, Wikimedia commons