In 1596, Burqa appeared in
Ottoman tax registers as being in the
Nahiya of Quds of the
Liwa of
Quds. It had a population of 28
Muslim households. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olives, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives; a total of 4,940
akçe. In 1838
Edward Robinson noted it as a Muslim village,
Burka, located in the area immediately north of Jerusalem, seeing it "high up on the hill-side". In 1863
Victor Guérin found it to contain about thirty houses. A Muslim
shrine devoted to
Sheikh Youseph was also noted. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that
Burka had a population of 152, with a total of 31 houses, though the population count included men, only. In 1883, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described Burkah as "a good-sized village standing high on a bare hillside, with a spring in the valley to the south." In 1896 the population of Burka was estimated to be about 270 people.
British Mandate of Palestine In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Burqa had a population of 268, all Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census, to 320, still all Muslim, in 66 houses. In the
1945 statistics, the population was 380, all Muslims, while the total land area was 6,001
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,297 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,460 for cereals, while 22 dunams were classified as built-up areas.
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Burqa came under
Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 582 inhabitants.
1967 and aftermath Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Burqa has been under
Israeli occupation. After the
1995 accords, 8.5% of the village land was defined as
Area B land, while the remaining 91.5% was defined as
Area C. Israel has confiscated land from Burqa for the construction of the
Israeli settlement of
Kokhav Ya'akov. The village often experiences harassment from settlers that includes armed invasions of the village and attacks on residents,burning cars and houses and destruction of crops and livestock. In August 2023, a resident of the village was killed by a settler who entered with a herd a private field belonging to the local resident. ==Footnotes==