Biddu is located (horizontally) 10.1 kilometers (6.3 mi) north-west of Jerusalem. It is bordered by Beit Iksa to the east, Beit Ijza to the north, Al Qubeiba to the west, and Beit Surik to the south.[1]
History
Bagatti suggested that several buildings in the town are from the 12th century. South-west of the centre is the ruined wali of Sheikh Abu Talal, which might have been a Crusader church.[4][5]
Northeast of the village is the archeological site of Horvat Diab, which contains the remains of a Jewish farmhouse or estate of the Second Temple period, along with a few rock-cut tombs in the kokhim style, and the ruins of a public structure that possibly served as a synagogue.[6]
In 1838 Edward Robinson noted the village during his travels in the area.[9][10] It was described as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Malik area, west of Jerusalem.[11]
In May 1863 Victor Guérin visited the village, called Biddou. He described it as being situated on a very high plateau, with some 150 inhabitants. Some houses seemed very old.[12]
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Biddu had 70 houses and a population of 247, though the population count included only men. It was further noted that “the village was once more important, also it has a cistern carved in the rock. The Crusader road from Ramle to Nabi Samwil ran through here.“[13]Hartmann found that Biddu had 71 houses.[14]
In the 1945 statistics the population of Biddu consisted of 520 Muslims[19] and the land area was 5,392 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[20] Of this, 334 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,258 for cereals,[21] while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.[22]
Jordanian era
On the night of 19 April 1948 the village was attacked by the Palmach.[23][24] The attacking force was commanded by Yosef Tabenkin, based in Jerusalem. They were later to become the Harel Brigade of the Israeli army. The attack came from Beit Surik which had been captured earlier that night. Biddu was subjected to a short bombardment from a Davidka after which Palmach sappers entered the village and demolished its houses,[25][26] and effectively stripped it of its inhabitants. Before withdrawing from both Biddu and Beit Surik, under Moshe Dayan's direction, a special unit contaminated the villages' wells with a biological warfare agent consisting of typhus and diphtheria bacteria. The purpose of such poisoning was to make Palestinian villages that had conquered but not yet occupied uninhabitable to residents seeking to return to their homes.[27]
The barrier in northern Jerusalem, with the "Biddu enclave" to the left
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Biddu has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 1,259, of whom 567 originated from Israeli territory.[29]
Biddu along with 9 other Palestinian villages, Beit Duqqu, Beit 'Anan, Beit Surik, Qatanna, al-Qubeiba, Beit Ijza, Kharayib Umm al Lahimand and at Tira 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 in order to form the real estate reserves of the Jerusalem Corridor and to create a territorial continuity with Giv'at Ze'ev.[32] 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.[33]
In 2004, initially peaceful demonstrations against the separation barrier in Biddu turned violent when the IDF cleared the area.[34] Biddu has become a focal point for non-violent resistance to the process of incorporating Palestinian lands into Israeli settlements.[35]
Biddu villagers promote the use of their bodies to hinder bulldozing of their terrain, and recourse to arms or violence is forbidden.[32]
Attempts to have "women only" protests, to avoid conflict, have met with defeat. In one demonstration by Israeli and local women activists in April 2004, a protest by 70 women brandishing signs and singing was broken up by tear gas, stun grenades, and mounted police.[35]Diaa' A-Din 'Abd al-Karim Ibrahim Abu 'Eid was shot dead by gunfire during an anti-barrier demonstration on 18 April 2004.[36]Muhammad Fadel Hashem Rian and Zakaria Mahmoud 'Eid Salem were shot dead during anti-barrier demonstrations on 26 February 2004 at Beit Ijaz (a satellite village of Biddu).[36]
^Conal Urquhart, 'Israelis kill two villagers in barrier protests,'The Guardian 27 February 2004:'Yesterday Ziad Mansoor, 23, from Biddu, said he had witnessed the shooting dead of Zacharia Eid, a father of three from a nearby village. Mr Eid had been arrested by Israelis and put in a jeep, but managed to run away, at which point he was shot, according to Mr Mansoor. He said they had been protesting because the separation barrier would ruin the future of the villages. "We will be cut off from everything we need to have for a normal life," he said. . .Periodically, a cry would go up among Palestinians that someone had been injured and an ambulance would go to the rescue. One paramedic said that at least 11 people had been wounded by live ammunition and 14 by rubber bullets.'.
^ abBen Lynfield,'A West Bank town tries to protest the wall nonviolently,'The Christian Science Monitor, 6 May 2004:'what sets apart the Biddu demonstrations is that they are driven by Palestinians directly affected by the fence who espouse nonviolence as a tactic amid the shootings, suicide bombings, and calls for revenge that have characterized three-plus years of conflict.'
