Bal'a
| Bal'a | |
|---|---|
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بلعة |
| • Also spelled | Bala'a (official) Balaa (unofficial) |
Southern Bal'a
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 Bal'a
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| Coordinates: 32°19′59.40″N 35°06′31.15″E / 32.3331667°N 35.1086528°ECoordinates: 32°19′59.40″N 35°06′31.15″E / 32.3331667°N 35.1086528°E | |
| Palestine grid | 160/193 |
| Governorate | Tulkarm |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality (from 1995) |
| • Head of Municipality | Ahmad Said Mansur |
| Area | |
| • Jurisdiction | 23,000 dunams (23.0 km2 or 8.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Jurisdiction | 6,604 |
| Name meaning | Either "Swallowing", or "The hole in the millstone", |
Bal'a (Arabic: بلعة) is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate, located approximately nine kilometers northeast of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank and three kilometers away from the highway connecting Tulkarm with Nablus.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 6,604 in 2007. In 1922, the town had a population of 1,259 nearly doubled to 2,220 in 1945. After Israel's occupation of the town in 1967 after the Six-Day War, Bal'a inhabitants numbered 3,800 after dozens of families from nearby towns such as, Deir al-Ghusun settled there after being expelled for security reasons.
A tomb was broken into near this village about the time of the SWP visit. It consisted of a single chamber with a loculus on each of three walls. The door was an inscribed slab, with rough ornamentation. Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake found a date, corresponding to 332 C.E.
Bal'a, like all of Palestine was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. In the 1596 tax registers, it was part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami, part of the larger Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 6 households, all Muslims. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,658 akçe.
In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Bal'a as “A good-sized village on very high ground, with magnificent groves of olives to the west, and supplied by cisterns. It is apparently an ancient site, having rock-cut tombs.”
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Wikipedia