Sur Baher (Arabic: صور باهر, Hebrew: צור באהר), also Tsur Baher, is a Palestinian neighborhood on the southeastern outskirts of East Jerusalem. It is located east of Ramat Rachel and northeast of Har Homa. In 2006, Sur Baher had a population of 15,000.[2]
During a general survey of the southern part of Sur Baher, ancient stone cut olive presses, wine presses, cisterns and a limekiln were found.[3] A cave, with remains dating to the Iron Age I (12-11th centuries B.C.E.) were excavated at Khirbat Za‛kuka, south of Sur Baher.[4]
A burial cave, dating to the end of the first century BCE and the first century CE have also been excavated. The cave contained remains of several ossuaries, in addition to arcosolia and benches.[5]
Pottery vessels that dated to the Late Roman and Byzantine periods were excavated from an ancient quarry at Sur Baher.[6] One mile straight to the east of Sur Baher tombs from the Byzantine era have been found.[7] They were probably connected with the Georgian monastery at Umm Leisun.[8][9]
In the Crusader era it was known as Casale Sorbael.[10][11] In 1179 the village was mentioned as being among the villages whose revenue were given to the Mt. Zion Abbey by Pope Alexander III.[12]
1517–1920: Ottoman era
Sur Baher, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the tax registers of 1596 "Sur Bahir" appeared as being in the Nahiya of Quds in the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 29 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat barley, vineyards and fruit trees, goats and beehives; a total of 12,983 akçe. 15/24 of the revenues went to a waqf.[13][14]
French explorer Victor Guérin visited the place in 1863, and described Sur Baher as having about 400 inhabitants.[17] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 found 46 houses and a population of 154, though the population count only included men. It further noted that it was an old, well-built and nice-looking village.[18][19]
In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Sur Bahir as "a stone village of moderate size, on a bare hill. On the north is a well in the valley, and there are rock-cut tombs above it to the west."[20]
In 1896 the population of Sur Bahir was estimated to be about 300 persons.[21]
In the 1945 statistics the population of Sur Baher, together with Umm Tuba, was 2,450, all Muslims,[24] who owned 8,915 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[25] 911 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,927 used for cereals,[26] while 56 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[27]
In the 1961 Jordanian census, the population of Sur Baher was 2,335.[29] Sur Baher's population together with Umm Tuba and Arab el Subeira amounted to 4,012 in the same census.[30]
1967–present: Israeli occupation
Structures at risk of demolition
Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Sur Baher came under Israeli occupation.
The 1967 Israeli census showed there were 4,710 inhabitants in Sur Baher and Umm Tuba, an increase with 17.4% from the 1961 census.[30]
Parts of the village have differing status, some is within the East Jerusalem boundary and some within the West Bank and a part is outside the boundary but still on the Israeli controlled side of the barrier wall.
Israel has divided Sur Bahir & Umm Tuba in two main parts: the western part, called "J1", (about 6,476 dunums (78.5% of the towns’ total area)) is under the control of the Jerusalem Municipality. The eastern part (1,769 dunums (21.5% of the towns’ total area)), called "J2", is divided into:
Part of "J2" is inside the wall, part of it is outside.[31]
According to ARIJ, Israel has confiscated land from Sur Bahir & Umm Tuba in order to construct two Israeli settlements: 1,343 dunams for East Talpiot, and 354 dunams for Har Homa.[32]
In 1970, Israel expropriated land around the village used for livestock grazing and harvesting olive and citrus groves from its owners.[33] Most of that land was utilized in the building of the Jerusalem Jewish only neighborhood/settlement of East Talpiot.[33] According to Isabel Kershner, a fifth of Sur Baher's land was expropriated for East Talpiot, available land in the village became insufficient to meet the growing needs of the population, and it was difficult for Sur Baher residents to obtain building permits from the Jerusalem Municipality.[34] Residents constructed homes on the remaining land in the Wadi al-Ain and Wadi al-Humus valleys across what is designated by Israel as the municipal border.[34]
In 2000, the Israeli government and Jerusalem municipality approved building plans for two new high schools and a youth center. In September 2005, the Jerusalem municipality, in cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces, cleared a Jordanian minefield in Sur Baher. The work, carried out by an Israeli company, was completed by October 2005.[2] In May 2007, the municipality built two schools on the cleared land: a girls school attended by 800 students, and Ibn Rushd, a boys school attended by 700 students.[35] Since 2013, even non-Israeli Palestinian residents of Sur Baher are entitled to the services of Bituah Leumi (the Israeli National Insurance Institute) and the associated state health care.[36]
In response to the demolition on July 22, 2019, of up to 16 residential buildings in the neighbourhood of Wadi al-Hummus in the village of Sur Baher, Amnesty condemned the action stating: "These demolitions are a flagrant violation of international law and part of a systematic pattern by the Israeli authorities to forcibly displace Palestinians in the occupied territories; such actions amount to war crimes."[37] OCHA provided background information on the situation in Sur Baher where the Barrier has been routed around Sur Bahir so that parts of Area A, B and C fall on the Jerusalem side but have not been incorporated within the municipal boundary, although they are now physically separated from the remainder of the West Bank.[38]
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 58
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 104
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 154
^Yoram Dinstein; Mala Tabory (1 September 1994). Israel Yearbook on Human Rights: 1993. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 41. ISBN978-0-7923-2581-9. Retrieved 14 October 2015. Israel considers Jordan's annexation of the West Bank, recognised only by Great Britain and Pakistan, to have been illegal.
^Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 14
