Kobar

Kobar (Arabic: كوبر‎) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank. Kobar is located at an altitude of 670 meters (2,200 ft) above sea level with a mean annual rainfall of 669.8 mm. The average annual temperature is 16 °C and the average annual humidity is approximately 61% .

Kobar
Place
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicكوبر
 • LatinKaubar (official)
Kobar Village
Kobar
Kobar Location in the State of Palestine
Kobar
Kobar Location in the West Bank
Coordinates: 31°59′20″N 35°09′33″E
Palestine grid165/155
State Palestine
GovernorateRamallah and al-Bireh
Area
 • Total9,700 dunams (9.7 km2 or 3.7 sq mi)
Elevation670 m (2,200 ft)
Population
 (2007)
 • Total3,667
Name meaningKubar, personal name[2]

Since 1996, Kobar has been governed by a village council which is currently administrated by 11 members appointed by the Palestinian National Authority. There are two further employees working in the council; the village council owns a permanent headquarters and is included within a Joint Services Council for neighboring localities.

Location

Kobar located 10.1 kilometers (6.3 mi) north of Ramallah. It is bordered by Burham to the east, Jibiya and Umm Safa to the north, al-Ittihad to the west, and al-Zaitounah and Bir Zeit to the south.[1]

History

According to the Kobar Village Council, the name "Kobar" means "the place where the gypsum was" on account of it once containing abundant gypsum deposits.[3]

Potsherds from the Iron Age, Persian/Hellenistic, Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk periods have been found in the village. The oldest sherds were found on the north and south slopes of the village, while Byzantine sherds were found on the west side.[4]

Ottoman era

Kobar, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596, the village was located in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds. The population was 31 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on wheat, barley, vineyards, fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives; a total of 4,000 akçe.[5] Potsherds from the early Ottoman period has also been found here.[4]

In 1838, it was noted as Kubar, a Muslim village in the Bani Zeid district, north of Jerusalem.[6]

In 1863 the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village. He noted it had 600 inhabitants, and a mosque dedicated to a Sheikh Ahmed.[7] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed Kobar with a population of 220, in 48 houses, though the population count included men, only.[8][9]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Kobar as a "small village on a hill-top, with rock-cut tombs, and a tank, surrounded by olives."[10]

In 1896 the population of Kubar was estimated to be about 444 persons.[11]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kubar had a population of 447; 444 Muslims and 3 Christians[12] where the Christians were all Orthodox.[13] This had increased by the time of the 1931 census to 546, all Muslim, in 122 houses.[14]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 610, all Muslims,[15] while the total land area was 9,678 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[16] Of this, 3,512 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,434 for cereals,[17] while 33 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[18]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kobar came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 934 inhabitants in Kaubar.[19]

1967-present

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kobar has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 53.7 % of village land belongs to Area B, while the remaining 46.3 % is Area C.[20]

In 2008, the preacher at the local mosque in Kobar, Majed Barghouti, 44, died while in detention. His relatives alleged that he had been tortured.[21][22]

Notable people from Kobar

Twin towns

References
  1. Kobar Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 4
  2. Palmer, 1881, p. 237
  3. Kobar Village Profile, Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ). 2012.
  4. Finkelstein et al, 1997, pp. 397-398
  5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 116
  6. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 125
  7. Guérin, 1869, p. 36
  8. Socin, 1879, p. 156 It was also noted to be in the Bani Zeid district
  9. Hartmann, 1883, p. 106, noted 51 houses
  10. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 290
  11. Schick, 1896, p. 126
  12. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p. 16
  13. Barron, 1923, Table XIV, p. 45
  14. Mills, 1932, p. 49.
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 26
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 65
  17. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 112
  18. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 162
  19. Government of Jordan, 1964, p. 24
  20. Kobar Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 17
  21. Hamas preacher dies while in Palestinian jail; kin allege torture, Feb. 23, 2008, Haaretz
  22. Hamas turns West Bank funeral of leading cleric into protest against Fatah, Feb. 25, 2008, Haaretz
  23. Walsall - Kobar Friendship Group

Bibliography
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