According to
Roy Marom, the name derives from the
Semitic root b.d.d.
Bellarmino Bagatti saw several buildings he dated to the 12th century. Southwest of the village centre was the
wali of
Sheikh Abu Talal, possibly built on the ruins of a
Crusader church. Northeast of the village is
Horvat Diab, an archaeological site containing the remains of a Jewish farmhouse or estate of the
Second Temple period, along with
rock-cut tombs in the
kokhim style, and the ruins of a public structure that may have been a synagogue.
Ottoman era In the
Ottoman tax records of the 1500s, Biddu was located in the
nahiya of
Jerusalem. In 1738
Richard Pococke records passing by the village, which was near
Beit Surik. In 1838
Edward Robinson described it as a
Muslim village in the
Beni Malik area, west of Jerusalem. In May 1863
Victor Guérin described
Biddou as sitting on a high plateau. He said there were 150 inhabitants and some of the houses seemed very old.
Albert Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Biddu had 70 houses and a population of 247, although this count included only men. He saw a
cistern carved in the rock. The
Crusader road from
Ramle to
Nabi Samwil ran through the village.
Martin Hartman counted 71 houses. In 1883 the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it as a moderate sized village on a rocky hill with a
well in the northeast. In 1896 the population of Biddu was estimated to be about 546 persons. By the beginning of the 20th century, residents from Biddu settled
Salbit near
al-Ramla, establishing it as a dependency – or satellite village – of their home village.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Biddu had a population 252, all Muslims. This had increased in the
1931 census to 399, still all Muslim, in 88 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population of Biddu consisted of 520 Muslims and the land area was 5,392
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 334 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,258 for cereals, while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.
Jordanian era On the night of 19 April 1948 the village was attacked by the
Palmach. 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, 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. In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Biddu came under
Jordanian rule from 1948 until 1967. In 1961, the population of Biddu was 1,444.
Post-1967 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. After the
1995 accords, 24.8% of Biddu's land was classified as
Area B, the remaining 75.2% as
Area C. Israel has confiscated about 627
dunams of Biddus land for the
Israeli settlement of
Har Adar (
Giv’at HaRadar), and 186 dunams for
Giv’on Ha’hadasha.
Enclave 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 to form the real estate reserves of the
Jerusalem Corridor and to create a territorial continuity with
Giv'at Ze'ev. 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. In 2004, initially peaceful demonstrations against the
separation barrier in Biddu turned violent when the
IDF cleared the area. Biddu has become a focal point for non-violent resistance to the process of incorporating Palestinian lands into Israeli settlements. Biddu villagers promote the use of their bodies to hinder bulldozing of their terrain, and recourse to arms or violence is forbidden.
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). ==Footnotes==