The Village of Budrus: A Study of its Sociological, Cultural, Educational and Agricultural Conditions and Potentials for Development and Growth

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Translators Preface

In June of 1993, my fathers first cousin Dr. al Muli Yaqb and his wife visited my familyand me in Tallahassee, Florida. I was then an assistant professor of philosophy, having been hired two

years ago by Florida State University after my graduation in 1991 from the University of Wisconsin atMadison. At the time, my mother was living with us, and my sister Nagham and her husband, Yasir, and

their four beautiful children were also living in Tallahassee, having arrived from Amman, Jordan, in

1992. Dr. al had a married daughter who lived in Gainesville, Florida, the home of the University ofFlorida, and had come to visit her. Before he came to the US, he learned from our relatives in Amman

that my mother, my sister, and I all live in Tallahassee. So he decided to come to Tallahassee to visit the

wife and children of his late cousin, my father, Mamd Yaqb. While he was there, Dr. al told meabout a foundation he established for developmental projects in Budrus, the Palestinian village to which

the Yaqb family belongs. He said that the foundation was based on a study that he completed aboutBudrus and its developmental needs. I asked him whether the study was published in a monograph. He

said that it was, and that he brought a copy with him to give me as a gift. I asked him to autograph it for

me. The autograph reads: A present to brotherAl Yaqb, with my appreciation and love, [signed]

al

Yaqb, 5/6/1993. The monograph is a study commissioned by the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office for Education in the Arab Countries. It

is meant to be a scientific study. It has all the methodology and statistical analysis one expects in a

quantitative scientific study. But it is more than that. It gives a picture of the history of the village and of

the social demographics of its people who live inside it and in the diaspora. It contains a historical and

human narrative of Budrus. For years, I have entertained the idea of translating this document into

English and making it available to all those whose heritage can be traced, at least in part, to Budrus, and

who might find reading the Arabic original difficult or even impossible. Recently I have had the time to

carry out this project. I translated everything about the document except, of course, the English summary

that is appended to it and the two Appendices, which contain the two survey forms used to collect the

data. Needless to say, most of the information in this document is outdatedbut not the history, folklore,

and traditional accounts. Even the outdated information is important. It paints a human and social picture

of how the village was in 1992. At least, you will relate to a historical stage of it, and hence you will be

connected to the human and physical constitution of Budrus as it was in 1992.

I hope that this narrative will encourage you to visit Budrus in the future and connect to another

temporal stage of ita more recent one. In spite of the fact that this is a study commissioned by

UNESCO, a careful reader cannot overlook the unmistakably nationalist language of the study. For

instance, Dr. al refers to the land assigned to Israel by the United Nations after 1948 as the part ofPalestine that Israel occupied in 1948 and he refers to the Mediterranean shore of present-day Israel as

the Western shore of Palestine.

I would like to express my gratitude to Sumaya Ibrahim, the daughter of my sister Nagham

Yaqb, for copyediting this translation and for making it available on the Internet. Of course, my deepestgratitude is to the late Dr. al Yaqb, who conducted and published this study. This study is part of therich legacy he left behind. All of those who will read the Arabic or the English version of this study are

indebted to his diligent and devoted work. I dedicate the translation to his memory. I am sure he would be

pleased that the generations of Budrus in the West will be able to read what he wrote 20 years ago.

Aladdin Mahmud Yaqub

Pennsylvania, USA

November 2012


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The Village of Budrus

A Study of Its Sociological, Cultural,

Educational, and Agricultural Conditions

and Potentials for Development and Growth

by

[The Late] Dr. al Muli Yaqb

Regional Advisor in Education for Rural Development

UNESCO Regional Office for Education in the Arab Countries

November 1992


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Dedication:To the Generations of Budrus,

So They May Never Forget


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First: Introduction

This study of the village of Budrus is considered one among the very few known studies

that were carried out of Palestinian villages in order to understand their sociological, cultural,

and agricultural conditions and the areas and potentials for rural development and growth. Thisstudy has helped in selecting the village of Budrus to be one of the five residential communities

1

that are included in the support for the occupied Palestinian territories within the framework of

Project 431/JOR/01, funded from outside the UNESCO budget. The project aims, among otherthings, at supporting private associations and organizations in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

and the occupied Palestinian territories to improve the services that these associations offer to thepopulation, especially in the areas of early childhood education and adult education and literacy.

The UNESCO Regional Office for Education in the Arab Countries began executing this projectin 1991, and it is expected to be completed at the end of 1992.

The village of Budrus was until June of 1967 an integral part of the Arab land that islocated on the West Bank of the Jordan River. It became after that date, as an outcome of the

Second Arab-Israeli War, part of the Arab territories occupied by Israel. Due to the similarity inthe conditions, resources, and state that are peculiar to the occupied Palestinian villages after the

war of June 1967, it is hoped that this study will give a realistic picture, although in part, of thenature of the changes that are taking place in those villages and of the challenges that they face.

Perhaps this will help the international and national institutions and organizations that areconcerned with offering support and funds meet the real needs of the populations of these

regions and solve the pressing problems of which they suffer. Perhaps, they could remainsteadfast in their land.

This study aims at accomplishing the following:

1 To give a brief historical account of Budrus;

2 To draw attention to some of the villages aspects that pertain to its distinguished sights,folklore, and ruins;

3 To give a brief idea of the progress of the housing development taking place in thevillage;

4 To give a clear idea of the residential and social demographics of the villages inhabitantsand its people in the diaspora;

5 To learn about the nature of the economic activities of the people living in Budrus and inthe diaspora;

6 To give a clear picture of the origin of education in the village and the challenges it faces,

including early childhood education;7 To learn about the nature of housing and homes inside and outside the village;

1

These communities consists of, in addition to the village of Budrus, the village of Ya (al-Khall District), Qalandiyya Camp, DayrAmmr Camp, and the village of al-Ymn (JannDistrict).


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8 To give an idea of the extent of the use of visual and audio communication devicesamong the villagers;

9 To learn about the youth and health services and related facilities that are available in thevillage, and the challenges that the villagers face in the area of services;

10 To give an idea about the state of agriculture in the village, its challenges, and theopportunities for agricultural development; and finally

11 To learn about the nature of the developmental projects that were accomplished by thevillagers and the ones they would like to accomplish, and the nature of the current

problems they face.

This study will address analytically these topics in the following sections according to the order

above.In collecting the data, the study relied on two primary methods: the method of

distributing surveys, designed for the purpose of collecting specific information, to the heads ofhouseholds who live in the village or in the diaspora; and the method of personal interviews with

some school principals, community leaders, and administrators in the village, especially whencollecting information about the folklore, historical ruins, the origin of education in the village

and the improvements needed in this area, the story of introducing visual and audiocommunication devices, the available social and health services, the state of agriculture and the

general needs of the population in this regard, and the nature of the developmental projects thevillage needs.

The study employed two different survey forms:The first (Appendix 1) was especially designed to collect data from the families that still

live in the villagethere are 160 such families. These families were requested to answer all thequestions listed in the survey (that is, Questions no. 1 through no. 40). As for the families that

were forced, due to the Israeli occupation, to leave the village and live in the diasporathere are303 such familiesthey were requested to answer Questions no. 1 through no. 21 of the same

survey.The second (Appendix 2) was especially designed to facilitate the personal interviews

when information was gathered from school principals, community leaders, and administrators inthe village.

It should be mentioned that the study was careful to collect data from allthe heads ofhouseholds that currently live in the village or in the diaspora. The number of these households is

463.The author would like to thank all those who cooperated with him in order to bring to

fruition this modest effortchief among them is the heads of households of the people ofBudrus, whether they live in it or in the diaspora, who displayed the utmost of understanding and

enthusiasm for completing the surveys with care and objectivity. The author also thanks Mr.

Mamd asan Mamd (Ab Mzin) for his sincere effort in overseeing the completion ofthese surveys by the families that still live in the village and in collecting information about thevillage from its community leaders. He also would like to thank Wald Yaqb, Hadl WajhYaqb, Abdulf MafAbdulf, Mzin Mamd asan, Muammad AlUthmn,Ridah al-Hurayn, ufiy Faza, and Fud Abdullh Yaqb for the contribution and helpthey offered in order to complete this study, whether these were in gathering the data from theheads of households who live in Amman and other Jordanian cities, or in uploading the data to or

storing them in the computer, or in formatting the data in tables or other formats that are suitable


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for analysis, or in printing the initial draft and editing it linguistically. Furthermore, the authorthanks Mr. Nam Ab Wardah for his translation of the summary of the study into English, andall the executives and employees of the International Corporation for Office and DraftingServices and Supplies in Amman for their full cooperation in printing this book and producing it

in its final form.


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Second: A Historical Overview of the Village

Budrus is located to the east of the city of al-Lyddd, which is only about 9 kilometers

from the village, and to the west of the city of Ramallah, which is only about 45 kilometers [from

the village], and to the northwest of the city of Jerusalem, which is separated from the village by50 kilometers (see the section of the map of Palestine in Figure 1). Before the first Israelioccupation of 1948, it was part of al-Ramla District, Jaffa Province, and then it became part of

Ramallah Province.The homes of the village now occupy an area estimated to be about 2 square kilometers.

They were built originally on the site of the Roman village of Patros2. The land that was

cultivated for agriculture and that was not cultivated extended collectively prior to 1948 to about

25,000 dunams [about 6177 acres]. After that year, the collective land shrank to about 8,000dunams [about 1976 acres], as the village lost more than two-thirds of its land as an outcome of

the First Arab-Israeli war, since these lands became part of the Green Zone, which separatedthe Palestinian part occupied in 1948 from the part that remained Palestinian after that year.

Currently the land of Budrus is surrounded by the lands of the villages of Qiby, Bayt Nabl, al-adtha, Naln, and al-Madyah.

The following sites and historical ruins are part of the land of Budrus and of the landsadjacent to itperhaps, they were part of the village in the past:

3

Figure 1: A Section of a Map of Palestine (al-Ramla District)

It shows the location of the village of Budrus and the neighboring towns

1 Budrus Ruins [khirbat Budrus]

It is located to the west of the village, about 0.5 kilometer from its homes. It is a place

filled with water-collecting wells, reservoirs that are carved in stones, caves, rocks that areengraved in minute detail and symmetric shapes, polished columns, the remains of many potterypots, and uncoloredfasyafas stones

4that are scattered all over the place. All of these are

indications that this place, khirbat Budrus [Budrus Ruins] as called by the locals, must havebeen inhabited by people at some time.

2 Zibdah Ruins [khirbat Zibdah]

It is located to the south of the village. It comprises partially destroyed buildings andwalls, reservoirs carved in stones, other constructions indicating that an oil press must have

existed, and columns of an ancient monastery.

2The source isBildin Filistn, 4th Volume, Second Part, The Jaffa Communities, by

Muaf Murd al-Dabbgh, p. 567, First Edition, AH 1392/1972 CE.3 Ibid, pp. 55655674

A type of semi-precious stone. (Translators note)


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3 Kfah House [bayt Kfah]

It is located to the west, about 2 kilometers from the villages homes, and it runs parallel

to the modern villages land. It contains some foundations of old homes and some caves.

4 armsh Ruins [khirbatarmsh]

It is known among the villagers as khirbat al-Ramsh [al-Ramsh Ruins]. It is locatedat the southwest of Budrus, between Budrus and the village of Jammz. It is elevated about 206meters above sea level. It comprises foundations, graveyards, reservoirs, floors, and oil presses

that are carved in stones. It is possible that this is the same as the village of Zaylsh, whichYqt al-amaw, the author ofMujam al-Buldn, mentioned [in his book]. Also Zaylshmight be a corruption of the name armsh, to which the following were attributed:

(a) Ab al-Qsim Hibat Allh ibn Nimah ibn al-usayn ibn al-Siral-Kinnal-Zaylsh;and(b) Ibrhm ibn Muammad ibn Amad Ab Isq al-Qays, the learned jurist, whoseancestry is attributed to Zaylsh. He was a soldier who left the military and studied the Qur n

and jurisprudence and acquired the adth from some of his teachers, then travelled to Baalbekand resided in it, and then moved to Hama, and finally settled in Damascus and died there in AH552/1157 CE.

5 Al-Birriyyah Ruins [khirbat al-Birriyyah]

It is located to the south ofarmsh Ruins, and it contains some ruins of old homes,mounts of debris, and reservoirs carved in stones.


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Third: Distinguished Landmarks, Folklore, and Historical Sites

In addition to what was mentioned previously about the historical ruins that surround the

village of Budrus, there are other famous historical sites that distinguish the village, the most

important of which are:

1 The Church [al-kansah]

Near the village, at the eastern side of it, there is an elevated place, which the villagersrefer to by the name al-kansah [The Church]. If you enter this place and examine it carefully,

you would indeed find that these remains indicate that this place was a large church building.There are large stones engraved in a symmetric fashion, and many are still holding together in a

precise structure; there are also the remains of large columns; and smallfasyafas are stillscattered here and there.

2 The Roman Cemetery [al-qubr al-r

mniyyah]

When you stand at the ruins of the church we mentioned above and look to the east, youwould see within a few meters symmetrical geometrical figures that are engraved in stones. Each

one of them measures two meters in length, one meter in width, and one and a half meters indepth. These in fact are Roman graves. Their presence near the ruined structure clearly proves

that this structure was indeed a church in which its congregation worshiped and near which theyburied their dead. The people of Budrus refer to these Roman graves by the name al-nawms.

They are still apparent to this day.

3 Al-baydirand al-sidrah

Al-baydir, which are colloquially called al-nawdir, are part of the villages folklore.

They form a piece of land that measures about 10 dunams [about 2.27 acres] and is adjacent tothe village from the eastern side. The land used to be divided among the farmers of the village

such that each farmer was assigned 100 square meters, which is called baydar[singular ofbaydir], so he may gather and thresh his harvest of wheat or rye in this place that is designated

for him. The threshing of grains used to be performed by primitive methods, as several animalsare tied together and made to tread on the harvest for several days until it becomes soft, allowing

the farmer to separate the grains from the chaff by the use ofal-midhrh5

and wind.

5 A tool (like a cane) that is made of a wooden cylinder, which measures about 1.5 meters inlength, and about 3 centimeters in diameter. One of its ends is attached to several long wooden

prongs that are relatively broad and close to each other. They number about 57 prongs,collectively forming al-midhrh, which in most cases resembles a human hand. The farmer, after

the animals trod on the harvest, separates the hay by means of this tool. He stands with his backto the wind and holds the cylindrical rod at its last third, directing its wooden prongs towards the

softened harvest. When the prongs engage the harvest, the farmer raises the tool, and with it thegrains and hay that are carried with it, and positions it in the direction of the wind, which

separates the grains from the chaff.


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The villagers eschewed the use ofal-baydirafter many homes were built on the landthat was designated foral-baydir, and after the use of modern threshing machinery replaced the

use of primitive methods.As foral-sidrah tree, as the villagers used to call it, it was an ancient huge tree whose

trunk measured more than 4 meters in circumference. It was planted to the west ofal-baydir

and close to them. Farmers used to sit and sleep under it during the season of threshing theharvest, as its branches covered an area estimated at 80 square meters.Al-sidrah was considered one of the distinguished sights of the village and part of its

tradition. It was used as a place for community gathering during the summer, when the villageselders would gather at the tree and sit in its shades seeking comfort and entertainment, playing

the popular game ofal-sjah on its dirt. The elders would circulate around it, being divided intotwo teams, with each group cheering for its team against the other team; in this manner they

would spend an enjoyable time.Al-sidrah was not a monopoly for the villages elders only, butthe children too had a share in it. As soon as the elders left for their jobs, children would come

running with their ropes and make swings hanging from the trees huge branches. Those swingswere considered among the most important entertainment available for the children then.

When the villages elders decided in 1966 to construct a new mosque for the village atthe place ofal-sidrah, they disagreed among themselves, as one group supported the uprooting

of the tree and building the mosque in its place, and another group objected to this opinion andconsidered al-sidrah necessary for the village. The disagreement between the two groups was

severe enough to halt the construction of the new mosque. It became necessary for the IslamicJudge of Ramallah to adjudicate the matter; he came to the village, met with the villagers and the

villages administrators, observed the proposed location of the mosque and al-sidrah, anddecreed that it is best to uproot the tree and convinced the objecting party of his point of view.

Thus al-sidrah was uprooted, and the village lost one of its famous distinguished sights. The newmosque was built in its place.

4 Al-badIt is an ancient Roman structure that is underground, with only one opening in its roof

allowing light to shine through. This structure is located approximately in the center of the

village. It is still standing until today, and a person may climb down into it through a smallentrance located at the side of the main road.

The senior citizens of the village say that the structure was used as an oil press and wasknown in the past as al-bad. It is still known by this name. The area that surrounds it in the

middle of the village is known as al-badneighborhood.Al-badcontinued to be used as an oilpress by the villagers throughout the Turkish era, as they used to press their olives by a large

circular boulder; in its middle was a huge wooden column, which several men rotated manytimes until the olives became very soft. After that they placed the olives in square boxes made of

goat hair, and the boxes were staked over each other under a wooden press that was forced downby several men until the production of olive oil was completed. The boulder and the remains of

the press still exist inside al-baduntil the present time.

5 Ab Dwds Oil Press [maarat Ab Dwd li-l-zayt]

This oil press is located at the center of the village, near the old mosque. It was

introduced into the village during the British Mandate over Palestineprecisely, in the year1925. It is newer than the ancient al-bad. The olives were pressed in it by means of a large


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circular boulder harnessed to a horse, which continued to rotate until the olives were threshed,and then they were transferred to a press made of iron, and not of wood as was the case with al-

bad. However, the process of forcing the press down in order to generate the required pressureon the threshed olives to produce the oil was still carried out by the manual labor of men. The

villagers stopped using this oil press after 1967 due to the introduction of modern olive oil

presses. Recently the Israeli occupying forces confiscated the large circular boulder, the press,and other remains of the old oil press, and transposed them to a nearby tourist resort, claimingthat these antiques are part of their folklore.

6 The Villages Old Mosque [jmi al-qaryah al-qadm]

It is located in a place where there are many collapsed ancient Roman homes (Figure 2).It is still in use by the villagers, and it is called al-jmi al-umary al-qadm [the Old UmarMosque]. It is constructed according to Islamic architecture, with a rectangular shape thatmeasures about 8 meters in length and 6 meters in width. Large stones were used in its

construction, which are the same type of stone the Romans used to build their temples andhomes. In its court there are a water well and two carefully polished columns, each of which is

longer than 2 meters.As to when it was built and who built it, the most likely opinion is that it was built when

the Muslims conquered the Syrian Territories [bild al-shm] and after they expelled theRomans from them. It remained the only mosque in the village since its construction until 1967,

when the villagers undertook the construction of a new mosque. In 1901, the old mosquebuilding was utilized as the first school in the village, in addition to its serving as a mosque. It

continued to be used as such until 1939, when the construction of the first Gharbiyyah School inthe village was completed.

Figure 2: An Outside View of the Villages Old Mosque

7 The Guest House or the Court [al-mafah oral-sah]

It is located near the Old UmarMosque. It is an old structure that consists of onerectangular room whose area is about 50 square meters. The structure was used then to house[passerby] strangers and visitors who did not belong to [any of the families of] the village. This

is the reason for its name. Those visitors would sleep in the Court and the villagers would servethem food for the length of their stay in the village. The Court was also used as a center in which

the villagers would congregate, especially the heads of households, during religious events suchas the month of Raman, when every head of household would bring his food and the villagerswould break the fast together. The villagers stopped using the Court for these purposes a longtime ago. The structure is still standing across from the Old Mosque. The villagers transformed it

in the late 1950s into a bakery, [which operated] for some time and then stopped.

8 Imm AlSanctuary [maqm al-imm Al]

This is a structure that is located to the west of the village (see Figure 3). It consists of a

chamber covered by a dome, built according to Islamic architecture, whose area is about 25square meters. Next to it is an open gallery, also built according to Islamic architecture, whose

area is equal to the area of the chamber. A thick fence surrounds the structure. There are threewells in its court to collect rainwater and several graves, some of which are inside the chamber.


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The structure was built on a hill that oversees the western shore of Palestine (Figure 4). It isbelieved that it was built to be a prayer chamber for the Muslim general and his army during that

time as well as to be used as an observation post.

Figure 3: Two Views of Imm AlSanctuary

1. The sanctuary from the outside. The view shows the chamber and the dome (right) and theopen gallery (left) together with the surrounding fence.

2. The open gallery and the dome of Imm AlSanctuary.

Figure 4: A Western View from Inside the Open Gallery of Imm AlSanctuaryIt shows the opposing mountains, which are covered with bushes, and the western shore of

Palestine.

9 A Saint Sanctuary (Ab Isml) [maqm wal(Ab Isml)]

It is also a structure consisting of a chamber covered by a dome that is built according toIslamic architecture. However, there is no open gallery next to it, as is the case with Imm AlSanctuary. This structure is located to the north of the village, about one kilometer away from it.It is built on a high place that oversees vast areas from all its sides. The Sanctuary now falls

within the region that Israel occupied in 1948. It is being used presently for military exercises,and it is separated from the village by the 1948 borders (Figure 5), so the villagers are not

permitted to reach it.There are many such sanctuaries in the West Bank, all of which are located at the top of

mountains. This is evidence that all of them were built during the era of the Islamic conquests forthe same purpose for which Imm AlSanctuary was builtnamely, as a prayer chamber and anobservation post.

As to why this structure is named Ab Isml Sanctuary and the other one Imm AlSanctuary, it is most likely that, as it is still common till the present, the Muslims during thattime were of the habit of naming many of the places of worship after saints and righteous people

in reverence for them and to seek the blessings of their names. Accordingly the first sanctuarywas named Imm AlSantuary in reverence for the Imm Al(may God glorify his face), andthe second Saint Ab Isml Sanctuary in reverence for one of the saints of God who had thisname at that time. Both sanctuaries are still standing today, but they are in dire need of

maintenance and care.

Figure 5: Two Views of the Region of Saint Ab Isml Sanctuary1. A view of the sanctuary that was taken from afar since it cannot be reached.

2. A view of the border that separates the sanctuary from the land of the village; next to the

border goats graze.

10 Al-mazr

It is located in the northeastern corner of the village. It is an ancient structure, whose

main features are still apparent: the large stones and the walls are still standing until the present.


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Near the structure, there is a smallsaqfah6

that is surrounded by stones, which the villages callal-mazr. The land that encloses the ancient structure and thesaqfah is known as al-mazr

ground.The villagers used to award this al-mazrall respect and reverence. They believed that it

could heal the sick by the will of God. If a member of a family became sick, the head of the

household would go to al-mazrand take with him a little olive oil to illuminate the place, andthen he would collect some dirt, straw, or pebbles from inside the place and place them under thesick person during his sleep, hoping for his recovery.

As to why it is called al-mazr[literally, the visited place], it is most likely that thislabel is due to the frequent visitations that people made to this place, because one of the

righteous saints was buried there.

11 Al-maqyal

It is a region of land located within the western part of the village, whose area is about 1

dunam [about 0.247 acre]. In the past, there was a shepherd for the village, who herded thecalves and cows of the villagers in return for an annual wage of one 7 of wheat per cow. That

shepherd, orral-ijl[the calves shepherd] as they used to call him, used this place as agathering point for the cows in the morning before he would herd them to graze. During the

waiting time, some of the cattle would taql8 in that place to rest until the gathering of cows iscompleted. It is because of this that this place was called al-maqyal[literally, the place for lying

down]. This is evidence of the importance of raising cows in the village in the past and of theavailability of pastures in it.

Now this al-maquyalis abandoned since the villagers have no use for it due to thescarcity of pastures after the Israeli occupation. This in turn resulted in the reduction of the

number of cows owned by the residents of the village, who recently built on this place a heathclinic for them.

12 Al-hawwyah

It is located at the southeastern side of the village, and a few meters from it. It is acleavage between rocks that measure about 2 meters in length, a half meter in width, and no

more than a meter in depth. If you look carefully at its depth, you will find many extendedopenings under the rocks in all directions.

It was called al-hawwyah [literally, the wind tunnel] because a reverberating sound,similar to the whistling of wind, is emitted from this cleavage perpetually. It is louder in the

winter than in the summer. A person can clearly hear it if he lies down on the rock and places hisear close to the opening.

6

Asaqfah is a small structure that consists of a single room constructed from bricks that are

covered from the inside and the outside by mud mixed with straw to help support the structure.7

A measurement for grains that is, in ancient times among the people of Hejaz, equivalent to 4

amdd, that is, 1,220 dirhams (al-Mujamal-Was, p. 528). However, the modern , which isused in the village, is equivalent to 2.5 rils, that is, about 7.5 kilograms.8

That is, they would lie on the ground in order to rest.


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13 The Cave of Forty [maghrat al-arban]

It is located at the western side of the village within the general cemetery, and it is only a

few meters from Imm AlSanctuary. Its area is about 40 square meters. It extends severalmeters underneath a large rock, and contains no openings other than the main entrance. The

reason for calling it The Cave of Forty is that there are forty human skulls inside it, which our

ancestors saw in the past, and when they discovered them, they transmitted this name to us, andwe, in our turn, transmit it to the coming generations.

14 The Press [al-arah]

It is a small area of rocky land located to the southern side of the village, and only a few

meters from it. The area is filled with geometrical shapes engraved in stones. Each shape consistsof a reservoir carved in a stone whose volume is about one cubic meter, surrounded by another

reservoir, larger in size but shallower in depth, from which a small canal, engraved in the stone,emerges and terminates in the first reservoir.

The history of these geometrical shapes, which are engraved in stones, goes back to theRoman era when they used them to press grapes, and from the grape juice they made their

favorite wines. For this reason the place and the surrounding area were called al-arah [thePress]

15 Sittammah [literally, Lady Dove]

A small sanctuary located in the village center, near the line that divides the twoboroughs (the Upper and the Lower)precisely, near the southeastern corner of MuammadAlAwas home.

In the past, this sanctuary was built from stones as a small chamber that did not exceed a

square meter. When Muammad AlAwa built his home near this sanctuary, he preserved itand kept it standing. The villagers believe that Sittammah was a blessed woman who has

charisma from God (Glorified and Most High), and that no person ever beseeched her, asking herfor something, without his invocation being answered. For this reason, any villager who wants a

solution to some problem or desires to fulfill a certain matter would go to this sanctuary bringingwith him oil to fill a lamp that exists inside the sanctuary, kindle the lamp, start praying to God

in front of the sanctuary, asking Him to give him what he wants, and then return to his homesatisfied that God will answer his invocation in honor ofSittammah.

16 The Water Reservoir [wz al-miyh]

It is a reservoir for storing drinking water, built from stone and cement, whose volumedoes not exceed 4 x 4 x 3 cubic meters. It was built around 1933. Mr. Ms Nir helped build it,as he then occupied the position of the governor of al-Ramla District, in order to solve the

problem of drinking water, of which the population suffered greatly before that date. [It wassolved] by means of completing a project that resulted in pumping water through iron pipes fromthe Spring of the village of Shibtn, which is 6 kilometers to the east of Budrus, and collecting itin this reservoir, in return for 25 Palestinian pounds to be paid annually by the village to ShibtnSpring Water Utility. This project supplied drinking water to five villages, one of which was the

village of Budrus. The women of the village used to go to the reservoir with jugs over their heads


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in order to fill them with water for the price of one Palestinian millm9per jug to be paid to the

keeper of the reservoir. The Reservoir is still standing today. It is located at the northern entrance

of the village, on the main paved road. In front of it there is a large lot that was and still is usedas the villages bus stop for the people who are waiting to travel to Ramallah every morning and

return to the village in the evening (see Figure 6). After the village and its homes became

connected directly to a public grid for drinking water in 1978, there was no longer a use for thereservoir to supply the village with water as it used to be. It became one of the villagesimportant distinguished sights.

Figure 6: [The Villages Reservoir]

The villages reservoir at the right of the picture and in front of it is the main road towards the

direction of the neighboring village of Qiby and the lot.

9 One Palestinian pound is equivalent to one hundred qirshs or one thousand milms. Its value

then was roughly equivalent to a Jordanian dinar.


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Fourth: Housing Development

Traditionally the village is divided into two main boroughs: the Upper Borough and the Lower

Borough.10

They are separated by the main road of the village, which is still unpaved. The total

of the old homes in the village reached 65 homes, constructed in residential formations, [each ofwhich consists of homes] mostly connected to each other, whose owners are related to each otherby blood or marriage. [The homes of] each formation share one common main gate. These old

homes were originally built on a land whose area is estimated to be 100 dunams [about 24.7acres]. The Upper Borough contains 40 old structures, including al-badand Ab Dwds Press,while the Lower Borough contains 25 old structures, including the Old UmarMosque and theGuest House. All of these structures are extremely old, some of which are called Roman homes,

because they were constructed during the Roman era (see Figure 7).After 1967, housing development increased significantly in the village (Figure 8). Many

modern homes were built, so that they extended to cover all of the area ofal-baydirand toreach the outskirt of the neighboring village of Qiby, which is 2.5 kilometers away from the

village. The number of the presently occupied homes in the village, whether old or new, isaround 215 homes, covering about 2 square kilometers. Among the reasons for this housing

development is the availability of skilled labor and the professions necessary for such a progressin the village, which were not available before 1967.

Figure 7: Three Views of Old Roman Homes

1. In front ofasan Mamd usayns home.2. A Roman gate that leads to the yard of Mamd usayns home.

3. A view of old Roman homes and others relatively new.

Figure 8: Two Views Showing an Expanse of Housing Development

1. Some modern homes that are between Budrus and Qiby2. A modern housing expanse

10

A borough [rah] is a residential community with well-known borders, which is larger than aneighborhood [ay] in area and population. The Palestinian villages usually consist of more than

one borough. The Upper and Lower Boroughs are so called due to their traditional locations inrelation to the main street, which divides the village into these two boroughs, and due to the

elevation of the lands of these two boroughs: the Upper Borough is located at the right (north) ofthe main road and on land that is relatively elevated, and the Lower Borough is located to the left

(south) of the main road and on land that is low.


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Fifth: Population Demographics

1 The Budrusite population in the village and in the diaspora and their distribution

according to gender and place of residence

The study showed that the Budrusite population at the end of 1990 who lived in the

village or in the diaspora reached 2,550 persons in contrast with its population in 1922, 1931,1945, and 1961, which was, respectively, 334, 420, 510, and 776 persons.

11When discussing

their distribution according to place of residence (see Table 1), we must emphasize the fact thatBudruss population, as all other Palestinian villages, is divided inside and outside the village.

That is, part of them, whose number is 796, continue to live and reside in the village, and theremaining population, whose number is 1,754, live in Jordan and other Arab and non-Arab

countries. It should be observed that the number of males in both cases exceeds the number offemales.

Table 1: The Distribution of the Population According to Gender and Place of Residence

Gender Place of Residence

Budrus Diaspora Total

Number % Number % Number %

Males 406 51 936 53.3 1,342 52.6

Females 390 49 818 46.7 1,208 47.4

Total 796 100 1,754 100 2,550 100

Before 1967, most of the people of the village lived in the village with the exception of a

small number of people who worked outside. After the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the

majority of the population left the village and settled in Amman until the present time. It isdifficult for them to return to the village, because they cannot obtain family reunion permits.12Hence they refrained from visiting their relatives and the village, and it became difficult for them

to conduct such visits without obtaining, through one of their close relatives, special permissionfor this purpose from the Israeli occupation authority.

2 The population distribution according to age group and place of residence

Table 2 shows that that about 57% of the total Budrusites in the village and in thediaspora are of the age group 20 years or younger, while about 6% of them are 61 years or older.

We should observe also that the percentage of those whose ages are 61 years or older is higheramong the villages residents than among those who live in the diaspora, for these percentages

are, respectively, 10.7% and 3.8%. As for the percentages of the age group 20 or younger, and 21to 30, they are about the same among those who live in the village and those in the diaspora.

11

The source isBildin Filistn, 4th volume, Second Part, the Jaffa Communities, p. 565.12 A document that is given by the occupation authority to permit those Budrusites who live

outside the village to return to it and live in it if they so desire.


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Table 2: The Distribution of the Population According to Age Group and Place of Residence

Place of Residence

Age Group Budrus Diaspora Total


20 or younger 441 55.4 1,002 57.1 1,443 56.621 30 127 16 266 14,6 383 15

31 40 92 11.5 187 10.7 279 11

41 50 30 3.8 142 8.1 172 6.7

51 60 21 2.6 101 5.7 122 4.8

61 or older 85 10.7 66 3.8 151 5.9

Total 796 100 1754 100 2,550 100

3 The distribution of the heads of households according to place of residence and age group

The number of the households that still reside in Budrus reached, as we mentionedpreviously in the Introduction, 160, that is, about 34.6% of the total households that are covered

in this study. However, since six of the heads of the households that reside in the village workoutside the West Bank, the number of the households that reside in Budrus is reduced to 154, as

shown in Figure 9, and the number of households that reside in the diaspora is increased to 309instead of the original 303 households. To be specific, the study findings showed that 51% of the

surveyed heads of households reside with their families in Jordan, 5% of them reside inKuwait,

13and [5% in] non-Arab countries (Figure 9).

It is worth mentioning that 23 heads of households among the 309 who reside in thediaspora, that is, in Jordan and other Arab countries, carry West-Bank ID Cards, which give

them the right to live and reside in the West Bank should they desire to do so.As for the distribution of the surveyed heads of households according to age group, the

study findings showed that the highest percentage among them (30%) were in the age group 31 40 years, followed by the age group 21 30 years, where their percentage reached 20%. The

heads of households in Budrus and the diaspora whose ages did not exceed 20 years were only 2(Figure 10).

Table 3 shows that the percentage of the heads of households whose ages are 31 40years and who reside outside the West Bank is slightly higher than the percentage of those who

reside in the village and whose ages are of the same group. But these percentages differsignificantly when we consider the age groups 41 50 years and 51 60 years, for the

percentage of those who live outside the West Bank is much higher than the percentage of thosein the village. The opposite is exactly true when we consider the heads of households of the age

group 61 and older. Their percentage in the village is much higher than their percentage in thediaspora; they are 27.5% and 11.6%, respectively. This means that more than a quarter of the

heads of households who reside in the village are older than 60 years.

13 This percentage changed after the events that took place in the Arabian Gulf [i.e., the first Gulf

War], specifically in 1991, when some of the families had to leave Kuwait and return to Jordan.


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Figure9:TheDistributionoftheHeads

ofHouseholdsAccordingtoPlaceof

Residence

Budrus:154(22%)

Qatar:9(2%)

Kuwait:22(5%)

Iraq:2(0.43%)

SaudiArabia:12(3%)

Non-ArabCountries:22(5%)

Jordan:238(51%)

Syria:4(1%)

Figure10:TheDistributionoftheHeads

ofHouseholdsAccordingtoAgeGroup

20oryounger:2(0.5%)

2130:93(20%)

3140:139(30%)

4150:88(19%)

5160:62(13%)

61orolder:79(17%)


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Table 3: The Distribution of the Heads of Households According to Age Group and Place ofResidence

Place of Residence

Age Group Budrus Diaspora Total

Number % Number % Number %20 or younger 2 1.3 0 0 2 0.4%

21 30 44 27.5 49 16.2 93 20.1

31 40 45 28 94 31 139 30

41 50 14 8.8 74 24.4 88 19

51 60 11 6.9 51 16.8 62 13.4

60 or older 44 27.5 35 11.6 79 17.1

Total 160 100 303 100 463 100

4 The distribution of the heads of households according to place of birth

Table 4 shows that the village of Budrus and the West Bank were the birthplaces of 96%

of the surveyed heads of households. As for the remaining ones (4%), they were born in thediaspora.

Table 4: The Distribution of the Heads of Households According to the Place of Birth

Place of Birth Number %

Budrus 441 95.3

West Bank outside Budrus 4 0.7

Jordan outside West Bank 15 3.4

Syria 1 0.2

Iraq 2 0.4Total 463 100

5 The distribution of households according to their size

The study showed that 25% of the surveyed households consist of 5 to 6 members, 6%

did not exceed 2 members, and 5% consist of 11 or more members. The study findings alsoshowed that the place of residence of the head of household is correlated with the size of the

household: the percentage of the households that consists of 5 or more members is greater amongthe households that live in the diaspora than among the households that still live in the village.

The converse is true regarding the households whose size does not exceed 4 members (Table 5).Also, the level of education of the head of household is correlated with the size of the

household: Table 6 shows that the percentage of the heads of households who have large families(9 or more members) decreases as the level of education of the head of household increases,

while the percentage of the heads of households who have small families, 1 4 members(especially those that consists of 3 4 members), increases as the level of education of the head

of household increases [Table 6]. This correlation, however, does not seem to be applicable tothe heads of households who are illiterate.


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Table 5: The Correlation between the Place of Residence and the Size of the Household

Size of Household Place of Residence Total

Budrus Diaspora


1 2 38 21.3 40 13.2 74 163 4 46 28.8 62 20.5 108 23.3

5 6 33 20.6 83 27.4 116 25.1

7 8 23 14.4 60 19.8 83 17.9

9 10 17 10.5 41 13.5 58 12.5

11 or more 7 4.4 17 6.6 24 5.2

Total 160 100 303 100 463 100

Table 6: The Correlation between the Level of Education of the Head of Household and the Size

of the Household

Size ofHousehold

Level of Education of the Head of Household TotalLess than HighSchool

High School Community College orHigher

Number % Number % Number % Number %

1 2 43 14.7 7 14.9 13 13.3 63 16

3 4 52 17.8 12 25.5 36 36.7 100 23.3

5 6 69 23.6 13 27.7 31 31.6 113 25.1

7 8 57 19.5 9 19.1 13 13.3 79 17.9

9 10 48 16.4 5 10.6 6 6.1 58 12.5

11 or more 23 7.9 1 2.1 0 0 24 5.2

Total 292 100 47 100 98 100 437 100

6 The distribution of the heads of households who reside in Budrus according their havingchildren who live in the diaspora

The study showed that 95.6% of the heads of households who reside in Budrus do nothave sons or daughters who live in the West Bank outside the village. Only 4.4% of them stated

that they have [collectively] about 7 sons or daughters who live in the West Bank outside thevillagespecifically, in the city of Ramallah, and the villages of Yatm, Naln, Qiby, and al-Madyah, either due to marriage or to live with parents.

In contrast the percentage of the heads of households who reside in Budrus and who have

sons or daughters living outside the West Bank is much greater than the percentage of those who

have children living in the West Bank outside Budrus; these percentages are, respectively, 26.3%and 4.4%. On the other hand, 73.7% of the heads of households who reside in Budrus stated thatall of their sons and daughters live with them in Budrus.

14

There were no answers to the question regarding the level of education of the head ofhousehold for 26 persons either due to death or simply due to a lack of answer, so that the total

number of respondents in this table is less than the number of the surveyed families in this study.


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7 The distribution of unmarried children according to place of residence

Regarding unmarried children, the study showed that the number of [unmarried] males

reached 900, that is, 35% of the total Budrusites who live in the village or in the diaspora, andthat the number of unmarried females is 768, that is, 30%. This implies that 65% of the total

population in the village and in the diaspora are still unmarried or under the age of marriage.

8 The villagers who are octogenarians or widows

The number of villagers whose ages exceed 80 are 26 persons, among whom 16 are

males and the rest are females. The study showed that 6 of [these 26 persons] live in the villagealone and the remaining 20 live with their children. As for the number of the widows in the

village, it reached 21, 8 of whom live alone and the rest live with their children.


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Sixth: The Social and Familial Demographics of the Population

1 Classifying the population into Qays and Yaman

Traditionally the tribes of Palestine are classified according to their roots into QanYamanites, which are the majority of the Palestinian population, and AdnnQaysites. Thisdivision is reflected, especially in the past, in the form of tribal feuds between the Qays and theYaman between the inhabitants of [different] villages or among the inhabitants of the same

village, due to the practices and traditions that distinguish the Qaysites and the Yamanites.Conflicts and even wars would break out between them for trivial reasons. Perhaps, the most

obvious form of this tribal feud took place during weddings, especially when a Qaysite familywould marry into a Yamanite family, or conversely. During a Yamanite wedding, the bride

would be dressed in a white gown (the color of the Yamanite flag), and during a Qaysitewedding, the bride would be dressed in a red gown (the color of the Qaysite flag). If the bride is

Qaysite and her bridegroom is Yamanite, there would be a dispute about the color of the bridesgown when she exits her fathers home. The solution might be that the color the bride wears

would be changed halfway during the bridesfardahjourney;15 some of them used to solve theproblem by [dressing the bride in] a red gown with white stripes, or in a red cloak over a whitegown, where the bride would remove her red cloak halfway [during the journey].

Budrus was no different from other Palestinian villages in that the population of thevillage was traditionally divided into Qays and Yaman, with all the implications of this division

regarding their loyalties, practices, grouping, and relations to each other, even regarding theirplaces of residence, for the residents of the Upper Borough were traditionally made exclusively

of the Awa family and its branches, which belong to the Qaysite tribe, and the residents of theLower Borough consist exclusively of the Abdulkarm family and its branches, which belong tothe Yamanite tribe.

Feuds, which were severe in the past due to tribal identity, began to weaken during the

British Mandate, so that rif al-rif stated in his detailed book about the history of Jerusalemthat tribal fanaticism had gone and vanished. In reality, however, the feud between the Qaysites

and the Yamanites was transformed, with the passing of years, into a kind of playful rivalry,which replaced the conflict of the past with sport competition and equestrian games, such as

trying to steal the white flag that a [Yamanite] bride carries. In the village of Budrus, peoplestraditional tribal identity as Qaysite and Yamanite has ceased to exist since about 1948, and their

identity as Budrusites became much stronger than in any time prior to that date. This was due tothe prevalence of social consciousness and education among the youth, and to the fact that the

village was located on the front lines, which separated the occupied part of Palestine from itsArabic part after 1948. After that date the danger of Israel to all the Palestinian villages that are

located on the front lines was increased, and with it the villagers attachment to their villages

increased: they forgot their past disputes and became determined to protect their villages againstany possible attack. This was manifested by all their young men joining the national guards,which were very popular then.

15 Thefardah of the bride is the group of people who accompany the bride during her short

journey from her fathers home to her husbands home.


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2 Families and [their] branches

The people of Budrus inside and outside the village belong to two main families: the

Awa family, or as it is called colloquially Awa, and the Abdulkarm family. As it ismentioned above, the Awa family and its branches are identified with the Qaysites, and theAbdulkarm family and its branches are identified with the Yamanites. 66.9% of the villages

households belong to the Awa family and 33.1% of them to the Abdulkarm family (seeFigure 12). To the Awa family belong 9 branches, whereas to the Abdulkarm family belongfive branches (see Table 7).

The study showed that the branch family of Mamd usayn is the largest branch of theprincipal family ofAwa, since about one quarter of the households that constitute this principalfamily and 16.7% of the total villages households belong to this branch family. Next comes thebranch family of Khalfah, to which 22.6% of the households that constitute the principal familyofAwa belong as well as 15.2% of the total villages households. As for the principal familyofAbdulkarm, its biggest branches are Ilayyn and then Ysuf, to which 32.7% and 23.5%,respectively, of the households that constitute this principal family belong.

Table 7: The Distribution of the Heads of Households According to the Branch Families

The Branch Family Number of

Households

Percentage of the

Total VillagesHouseholds

Percentage of the

Households ThatConstitute the

Principal Family

1. Awa 310 66.9 100

1.1. Mamd usayn 77 16.7 24.81.2. Khalfah 70 15.2 22.6

Figure12:TheDistributionofthe

HouseholdsAccordingtothePrincipal

Family

Awa:310(66.9)

Abdulkarm:153(33.1%)


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1.3. Abdah 40 8.6 12.91.4. Awa 37 8 121.5. Khalaf 28 6 9

1.6. Yaqb 21 4.5 6.81.7. usayn al-Al 15 3.2 4.8

1.8. Ankah 14 3 4.51.9. af 8 1.7 2.6

2. Abdulkarm 153 33.1 100

2.1. Ilayyn 50 10.8 32.72.2. Ysuf 36 7.6 23.52.3. Murr 35 7.6 23.52.4. Alln 19 4.1 12.42.5. ub 13 3 8.5

Total 463 100

3 Familial relationship between a husband and his wife

It is clear from Figure 13 that 46% of the heads of household married relatives, while

28% of them married from the village but without their wives being their relatives. The figurealso shows that about 26% of the heads of households preferred to marry from outside the

village. This is another proof that the [traditional] implication of familial relationship thatrelatives ought to remain close and connected to each other through marriage is being

contradicted [by the practice of the villagers].

16 The man after whom our family is named is Yaqb (I Anglicized the name as Yaqub). Hehad three sons, Abdullh, Muli, and Abdurabbah, in this order, and a daughter, Fimah.Abdurabbah is my paternal grandfather. He was married to Nimah Ilayyn. The family ofIlayyn is one of the branch families of the principal family ofAbdulkarm. Abdurabbah andNimah had two children, my aunt, Tufah, and my father, Mamd. Abdurabbah was draftedto serve with the Turkish army during World War I. He disappeared without a trace in the war

and never returned. We presume that he was killed at the Russian front. Nimah was pregnantwith Mamd when his father was drafted to the war. Hence Mamd never saw or knew hisfather. He was raised by his uncle Abdullh. Mumds ancestry, therefore, goes back to bothprincipal families ofAwa and Abdulkarm, and thus, to both tribes of Qays and Yaman.Mamd was one of the first Budrusites not to marry into one of the villages families. Mymother, Imtithl amdullh al-Munayyir, is from the city of Jaffa. Her ancestry goes back to thetribe of Qays, whose roots can be traced to the region of Hejaz in present day Saudi Arabia. Ifthis is correct, then the children of Mamd can trace their heritage to the regions of Hejaz andYemen. This is as much an Arab as one can get. However, I am of the heretical opinion thatwe are not as Arab as our elders would like us to believe. Many members of my mothers and

fathers families exhibit physical characteristics that are not typically Arab. So I believe that bothfamilies have mixed Arab and non-Arab roots in their ancestries. To avoid a protracted debate, I

wont elaborate on this opinion. (Translators note)


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Figure13:FamilialRelationshipbetween

aHusbandandHisWife

FromoutsideJordan:19(4%)

Fromoutsidethevillage:100

(22%)

Fromthevilagewithoutbeing

arelative:129(28%)

Fromhisrelatives:215(46%)


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Seventh: The Economic Activities of the Population

1 The type of work [performed] by the heads of households and their wives

Figure 14 shows that 14% of the heads of households do not work, while a majority of

them (56%) are self-employed. As for those who work in the public sector (except for those whowork as teachers), their percentage reached 14%, in contrast to 7% who works in the privatesector. There are 5% of the heads of households who work as teachers.

If we compare the heads of households who still live in the village to the heads ofhouseholds who live outside the West Bank regarding their types of work, we see, according to

Table 8, that the vast majority (73.1%) of the heads of households who reside in the village haveprivate businesses, such as farming and other private enterprises, because other forms of

employment are not available. This is contrasted with the 47.5% of the heads of households wholive outside the West Bank and have private businesses. Also, the percentage of those who work

as teachers among the heads of households who live in Budrus is higher than of those who workas teachers among the ones who live in the diaspora.

Regarding the heads of households who live outside the West Bank, a significant portionof them (21.1%) work in the public sector but not as teachers.

The study disclosed that among the wives 97.2% do not work for wages, but rather they

devote their time to homemaking and childcare. 30.7% of those who are employed (13 women)work in the educational sector as teachers, 46% in the private sector (as cashiers, bookkeepers,

seamstresses, and weavers), and 23.3% in the public sector other than education. It is worthnoting that a non-negligible number of the wives and husbands in Budrus work for wages in

agriculture and construction with Israel due to the unavailability of any financial support forthem from the umd fund17 that is allocated to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Table 8: The Distribution of Heads of Households According to the Place of Residence and the

Type of Work

Type of Work Budrus Diaspora Total


Self-employed 117 73.1 144 47.5 261 56.3

Employed in the private sector 3 1.9 28 9.2 31 6.7

Employed in the public sector

(other than education)

3 1.9 64 21.1 67 14.5

Employed as a teacher 10 6.3 14 4.6 24 5.2

Do not work 26 16.3 41 13.6 67 14.5

Other employments 1 0.6 12 4 13 2.8

Total 160 100 303 100 463 100

17

The umd fundis money provided by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) that isdesignated for Palestinian families who live in the occupied territories. The fund has dried up a

long time ago. (Translators note)


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2 The type of work [performed] by the children who are working and unmarried of both

genders

Regarding the type of work [performed] by the male children who are unmarried,

whether in the village or in the diaspora, the study showed that being self-employed or workingin the private sector is the occupation of a greater percentage among the male children who

reside in Budrus than among those who live in the diaspora, just as is the case with the heads of

their households. The converse is true when it comes to the unmarried females who are self-employed. Unmarried children of either gender who work in governmental organizations arefound only in the households that live in the diaspora, if they are compared to the households that

still live in the village (Table 9). Similar to the situation of husbands and wives, there is asignificant number of unmarried males and females in the village who work with Israel in the

areas of agriculture and construction, in order to supplement their income in the absence of anyfinancial support that might be provided to them by alternative sources.

Table 9: The Distribution of Working Unmarried Children of Either Gender in Budrus and in the

Diaspora According to the Type of Work

Type of Work Budrus Diaspora TotalMales Females Males Females

Number % Number % Number % Number % Number %

Self-employed 20 77 0 0 58 65.2 7 50 85 65.9

Governmental organizations 0 0 0 0 14 15.7 7 50 21 16.3

International and Arabic

organizations

1 3.8 0 0 17 19.1 0 0 18 13.9

Private sector 5 19.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 3.9

Total 26 100 0 0 89 100 14 100 129 100

Figure14:TheDistributionofHeadsof

HouseholdsAccordingtotheTypeofWork

Donotwork:67(14%)

Workintheeductionalsector:

24(5%)

Workintheprivatesector:31

(7%)

Otheremploymentsuchasthe

army:13(3%)

Workinthepublicsector(not

education):67(14%)

Sel-employed:261(56%)


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3 The types of professions available to the population that reside in the village

There is in the village currently a number of professions, in addition to farming, the most

important of which is construction; 25 people work in this profession. Auto mechanics andteaching are equal in the number of their practitioners; 6 people work in each profession. 4

people work as electricians, while 2 people work in each of carpentry, blacksmithing, and

medical supplies.


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Eight: Education and Its Origin in the Village

1 The history of education and its origin in the village

In the past, about 90 years ago, education in the village was conducted according to the

method ofkattb.18 Fate has it that at that time there was in Budrus a young man, whose age didnot exceed 14 years, and who was educated at the hands of the Ruftite Shaykhs19 in theneighboring village of Niln. This young man was the late Shaykh Abdullh YaqbAbdullh,20 who met with the people of the village and offered to teach their children. Theywelcomed this idea and helped him accomplish it. Indeed, on 20 April 1901, he became the first

teacher in the village. He began teaching in the UmarMosque, where students would sit onstraw mats and write using primitive ink and straws or chicken feathers instead of the modern

pen used today.Every student paid 1 qirsh

21at the end of every month as compensation for his education.

In the case that he couldnt, he had the option of paying 5 eggs or whatever agricultural productsthat he could afford. The number of students at that time did not exceed 15, and their ages were

between 7 and 12 years.Among the most important activities in which the students engaged was to maintain the

cleanliness of the village. At the end of the school day, they, with their teacher, would walk the

streets of the village cleaning and instructing [others how to clean]. Also, they would putslr22

in the wells that were not suitable for drinking, which were plentiful in the village, to kill the

mosquitos and control their spread. They carried out this task weekly. Finally, they wouldperform plays and oratorical activities, which aimed at addressing all types of social problems of

the village.

18 The method ofkattb is a primitive method for teaching young children how to write and readthe Qurn. It is still practiced in the remote regions of the Muslim World. In this method thechildren gather in front of a teacher, who recites and writes on a board a few verses of theQurn. The children copy what he writes and repeat what he recites. The method accomplishesits objective in a slow cumulative process. It is an effective method, in the sense that thegraduates from the kattb actually learn how to write and read the Qurn in Arabic, but it istotally useless as linguistic education, since almost all its graduates cannot read, write, orunderstand classical Arabic outside the Qurn. (Translators note)19

The Ruftites Shaykhs (al-mashyikh al-ruftiyyah) were a group of teachers who operated amadrasah in the village of Niln that taught all the traditional religious sciences, such asjurisprudence, adth, and Qurnic commentary; linguistic sciences, such as grammar,literature, and rhetoric; and some modern sciences, such as basic arithmetic, geometry, history,

and geography. It was the closest thing villagers had to modern education. (Translators note)20

Shaykh Abdullh, after whom my brother was named, is my paternal great uncle. After thedisappearance of my grandfather, Abdurabbah, at the Russian front during World War I, ShaykhAbdullh raised my father, Mamd, from infancy. My father grew up thinking that ShaykhAbdullh was his father. He learned the story of his real father later in life. (Translator note)21 A Palestinian pound, then, consisted of 100 qirshs. (Translators note)22

An old chemical compound that was used to suffocate mosquito larvae. (Translators note)


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After a student completed the fourth grade, which was the highest grade in the school, hiseducation would be complete, including the studying of the entire Qurn.23 For this occasion theteacher was keen to organize a celebratory party in which the students, their parents, and thevillagers participate. The parents of the graduating students were required to buy new suits for

the graduates complete with red arbsh24, and to bring horses, so that every graduate would

ride a horse. They rode through the streets of the village, while copies of the Nobel Qurn wereplaced before them. During this ride, all the women and men of the village would accompany thegraduates, where the women would sing and the men chant beautiful chants until the time of

sunset. At that time, the villagers would retire to the Guest House, and the families of thegraduating students would offer them food and drink.

After Shaykh Abdullh spent about 21 years as a nonofficial teacher of the village, hemoved in 1921 to work as a teacher at the [public] school of the neighboring village of Bayt

Nablah. He left his brother Shaykh Muli Yaqb Abdullh25 to be the teacher of the village;he taught from 1922 till 1937. He was followed by Mr. Amad Abdulmahdfrom the village ofQarah, al-Ramla District, though he taught for one year only, that is, school year 1937/38. Untilthen the school was housed in the villages Old Mosque. In the year 1938, Shaykh Abdullh

returned to teach in the village as an employee of the Department of Education of the BritishMandate Government. He became the first official teacher in the village. After he returned, it

was decided that a new school would be built for the village, which would be located at itswestern side. That was the first public school in the village.

2 The construction the first al-Gharbiyyah School of Budrus

This school was constructed in 1938 during the British Mandate. The villagerscontributed half the cost of its construction; the Department of Education contributed the other

half. The school was officially opened in 1939. The students were moved, with their four classes,from the villages Old Mosque to this school after it became ready for instruction. The highest

grade in the schools was the fourth grade. The students at that time were distributed to its four

classes as follows: 12 students were in the first grade, 10 students were in the second grade, 9students were in the third grade, and 8 students were in the final, fourth grade. Their total was 39students.

The school consisted of one room only, without any amenities, except for a reservoir fordrinking water. The size of the room was 49 square meters. Shaykh Abdullh taught first in this

23 One of the most important achievements of Shaykh Abdullh was that he made moderneducation not only accepted by the villagers, but also cherished and prized. It was very importantto make it clear that modern education was fully compatible with the families religious

aspirations for their children. Hence he made the study of the entire Qurn an essential goal ofevery pupils education. As we will read below, he enacted all sorts of traditions for the villagers

to celebrate their childrens educations. It should be mentioned too that Shaykh Abdullh inprinciple did not restrict the school to boys only. However, education for girls was not common

at all. As we will see later, by 1945 only 4 girls completed the fourth grade. (Translators note)24

Plural ofarbsh. It is a traditional red head cover, whose use became very popular during the

Ottoman Empire among the educated class of the population. [In English, it is known as a fez.]25 Shaykh Muli Yaqb is the father of the author of this study, Dr. al Muli Yaqb.(Translators note)


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school, followed by Mr. Ramzal-Shawsh from Bayt Dajin, al-Lydd District, and then Mr.Yaqb Abdullh Yaqb.26

Teaching in this school was halted and its students left it in the year 1951 due to thedanger of its location for their lives after the end of the First Arab-Israeli War. Often the Israeli

soldiers would fire at the school because of its closeness to the border or the Rhodes Line,

which separated the two parts of Palestinethe occupied part and the Arab part. In 1967 afterthe Second Arab-Israeli War, the Israeli army bombed the school and destroyed it (see Figure15).

After the village lost its first al-Gharbiyyah School in 1951, teaching was transferred forthe second time to the villages Old Mosque. The use of the mosque as a school continued for a

whole year; after that a house in the village, which belonged to Mr. Abdulamd amd, wasrented and used as a school for another year. Then it was moved for the third time to a room

owned by Mr. Yaqb Abdullh Yaqb, which continued to be used as a school until 1955.

Figure 15: [The First al-Gharbiyyah School]

A view of the western side, which was taken from inside Imm AlSanctuary, showing (on the

left) the location of the destroyed first al-Gharbiyyah School and the kn tree, which belongedto it; also showing the border that was near the school, rows of olive trees, and the star of Ab

adhwah

3 The construction of the current al-Gharbiyyah School of Budrus

Due to the pressing need of the village for a permanent school that was suitable for thegrowing number of students and their needs for amenities and a playground, the villagers

decided to build another, new school in spite of their dire financial situation. Because they wereunable to cover the cost of constructing a new school from their own resources, they sought the

assistance of various governmental organizations. The Jordanian army answered their request.With the cooperation of the villagers, a school for boys was built. It consisted of two rooms; the

size of each one was 30 square meters. The two rooms were ready for instruction in 1955. Theschool was constructed on land whose size was estimated to be 8 dunams [about 1.97 acres], and

which included a soccer field and a volleyball court. Near the school, a large well was built tocollect rainwater for drinking; it was constructed by the students of the British University of

Bristol through the Arab Construction Project of Jericho. The first to teach in the current schoolof Budrus was Mr. Yaqb Abdullh Yaqb. The school comprised then only three grades, asthe third grade was the highest grade in it. The students would move, after completing the thirdgrade, to the neighboring Qibys secondary school in order to continue their education. Thenumber of its students during its first year was only 40.

4 Constructing the girls school

Until 1945, there were in Budrus only 4 girls who completed the fourth grade, and this

number increased to 6 girls after 1945. It is clear from these data, that education for girls in thevillage was not common at all. In 1961, the first school for girls in the village was opened, and it

comprised only one gradethe first grade. The school consisted of only one room, which was

26 Yaqb Abdullh Yaqb is the son of Shaykh Abdullh and the husband of my aunt,Tufah. (Translators note)


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rented from Shaykh Abdullh Yaqb; its size was 36 square meters. The school containedduring its first year 14 students. Its first teacher was Itill Isq al-Marfrom Jerusalem, whowas also the first female teacher to be a government employee in the village; she was followedby Namiyyah Abdullh Yaqb from Budrus,27 then by Samrah al-arbwfrom Jerusalem,and other female teachers after that.

5 The educational services available for the children of the village presently

The educational services in the village progressed significantly if compared to the

services available prior to 1948. There is now in the village a coed boys school,28 which beginswith the second grade and terminates with the sixth grade; it contains 4 male teachers (see

Figures 16 and 17). In addition to this school, there is another coed girls school that covers thefirst grade, and contains only one female teacher (Figure 18). The distribution of the students

enrolled in these two schools according to grade during the school year 1989/1990 is shown inTable 10.

Figure 16: [The Coed Boys School]

Two views of the coed boys school before the students entered their classesFigure 17: [The Coed Boys School]

Two views of the fourth and fifth grades inside their classrooms with their teachers

Figure 18: [The Coed Girls School]

A view of the coed girls school showing some of the students in the first grade with their teacher

In addition to the students enrolled in the villages schools, as indicated in Table 10, thereare 66 male and female students who study in Qibys middle school for boys, Nilns highschool for boys, and Nilns [secondary] school for girls. Their distribution according to gradeduring the school year 1989/1990 is shown in Table 11.

It is clear from these numbers that the females in the village are still less fortunate thanmales in entering schools. It is worth noting that the village of Qiby is 2.5 kilometers to the eastof Budrus and the village of Niln is about 5.5 kilometers to the southeast of Budrus.

Table 10: The Distribution of Students in the Villages Schools during the School Year 1989/90

Grade Coed Boys School Coed Girls School Total

Boys Girls Boys Girls

First grade -- -- 12 8 20

Second grade 13 12 -- -- 25

Third grade 14 12 -- -- 26

Fourth grade 12 14 -- -- 26

Fifth grade 17 8 -- -- 25Sixth grade 17 4 -- -- 21

Total 73 50 12 8 143

27

Namiyyah Abdullh Yaqb is the daughter of Shaykh Abdullh Yaqb.28

Both schools in the village are coed. They are called boys school and girls school toindicate their history. The first school started as a boys school and the second school as a girls

school. (Translators note)


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Table 11: The Distribution of the Village Students in the Middle and High Schools of theVillages of Qiby and Niln during the School Year 1989/90

Grade Qibys MiddleSchool for Boys

Nilns HighSchool for Boys

Nilns [Secondary]School for Girls

Total

Middle school 1st grade 13 -- 4 17

Middle school 2nd grade 11 -- 4 15Middle school 3rd grade 12 -- 2 14

High school 1st grade -- 12 -- 12

High school 2nd grade -- 2 -- 2

High school 3rd grade -- 6 -- 6

Total 36 20 10 66

As for the students who are enrolled in community colleges or universities, and who livein the village, there were only 3 during the academic year 1989/90 (two males and one female).

6 The kindergarten

It was established in 1975. Administratively it was affiliated with the Sport Club of thevillage, which later halted due to inadequate financial resources and lack of support. One female

teacher worked in the kindergarten, as well as a woman who supervised the distribution of meals,which were provided by Catholic Charities and other charitable organizations, as assistance for

the children of the village; these organizations operated through the Office of Social Services inthe city of Ramallah.

The kindergarten received financial support from the villages [Sport] Club before ithalted. The funds came from the monthly dues paid by its members and from the monthly tuition

paid by the families of the children who were enrolled in the kindergarten. Due to the financialdifficulty that the Club faced, the lack of support from charitable organizations, the cessation of

the meals program, and the unavailability of a permanent place for the kindergartenas its

supervisors moved it sometimes to the villages Old Mosque or to other places that were totallyunsuitablethe kindergarten halted for a whole two years. The United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in the later part of 1991, provided financial

support to the village, through its Educational Committee,29

in the amount of 20,500 US dollarsto help in the construction of a permanent building for the kindergarten and in purchasing the

needed furniture and other supplies, as well as to help support programs that concern adulteducation and literacy, especially among women, and that concern increasing womens income

and improving their economic role by introducing and adopting limited projects, such as sewing,embroidery (see Figure 19), home gardening, raising chickens and rabbits of higher quality, and

other projects.

Figure 19: Two Views of Samples of Embroidery That Were Produced By the Village Women1. Embroidery on pillowcases and cushion covers

2. Embroidery on womens dresses

29

This committee consists of Mr. Mamd asan Mamd as a Chair, and the followingmembers: Ibrhm Salm Ibrhm, Mamd Ilayyn Awa, asan mid usayn, asanKhall asan, Amad Muammad Ms, Muammad Amad annn, and usnusaynAbdulkhliq.


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This financial support contributed to the reestablishment of the kindergarten, as atemporary place was rented for this purpose and was supplied with the necessary equipment.

Also a teacher was hired, who holds a BA in education and psychology. She works now underthe direction of the Educational Committee, which will move this kindergarten to its new,

permanent building as soon as the construction is completed. The construction of this building,

which consists of three classrooms and another room for the administration, is currentlyunderway, and it is expected to be completed at the start of the school year 1992/1993.It is worth mentioning that the villagers have contributed actively to the fulfillment of this

project. One villager, whose name is Mamd usayn Ilayyn, and who is a master builder,volunteered to build the building without compensation, if the Educational Committee would

provide him with the construction supplies. All the young men of the village helped him in theconstruction, working together as brothers united in their concern for the welfare of their village;

they are intent on delivering the completed building as soon as possible.

7 The educational level of the heads of households and of the members of their households

(7.A) The educational level of the husbands and wives and the type of their specialization

Regarding the educational level of the male heads of households and of their wives,Figure 20 shows that illiteracy among the wives is much greater than among the husbands, as

expected. The study showed that 133 wives among a total of 463 (that is, 29%) cannot read orwrite, compared to 34 husbands (that is, 7%) among the same total. The study also showed that

the majority of husbands and wives (56% and 54%, respectively) have an educational level thatis less than high school, whereas only 10% among each group have high school diplomas. As for

those who graduated from community colleges or universities, they are a minority: thepercentage of community college graduates among the husbands and wives is 11% and 4%,

respectively, and of university graduates is 10% and 2%, respectively.Regarding the distribution of the university graduates among husbands and wives

according to the degrees they received, the study showed that 42 husbands among a total of 47received BAs [or BSs], 3 received MAs [or MSs], and 2 received PhDs, compared to 10

wives who completed university education: 8 received BAs, 1 received an MA, and 1 received aPhD. (See Figure 20.)

As for

Documents

The Village of Budrus: A Study of its Sociological, Cultural, Educational and Agricultural Conditions and Potentials for Development and Growth