Aqraba

Etymology

The origin of the name is Semitic - Canaanite or Aramaic. Aqraba Arabic translation is "scorpion".

History and archeology

Cisterns dug into rock have been found in Aqraba.

Pottery sherds from Iron Age II, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Crusader/Ayyubid era have also been found.

The town has a mosque built of ancient stones with Greek inscriptions and contained a cross. According to local tradition and a number of British scholars believe the mosque was originally a Byzantine-era church. To the north of the village there is a fort called Qal'at al-Hosn consisting of a block of buildings put on the hill. The masonry is drafted with a rustic boss. A cistern exists within the enclosure which still holds water. A birkeh ("pool") stands in the middle of Aqraba, while on the hillside nearby are some kokhim, tombs carved from the rock.

Pottery sherds from the Mamluk era and a construction inscription in Arabic from 1414 have been found in the village.

Ottoman era

Aqraba, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 the village appeared under the name Aqraba as being in the Nahiya (Subdistrict) of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa (District) of Nablus. It had a population of 102 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and bee-hives; vineyards and fruit trees, in addition to occasional revenues, and a press for olive oil or grape syrup.

During his travels in the region in 1838 Edward Robinson mentions it, believing it was ancient Acrabi. Victor Guérin visited in 1870, and described as a large town with 2000 inhabitants. He further noted that it consisted of four quarters, each with their own sheikh.

In 1873-4 Clermont-Ganneau visited, and were told of the governor el Kadery, who resided in Aqraba at the time of Jezzar Pasha. He is said to have erected considerable buildings in the town.

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "A large village, surrounded with olives, of houses better built than most in the country. It stands on a saddle between two hills, one of which rises north of it 700 feet, the village standing at the mouth of a pass, through which the main road runs. The place crescent-shaped, whence perhaps its name, ' carved.' On south is the fertile plain (Jehir 'Akrabeh). There is a mosque in the east part of the village, founded on the remains of a Christian church, and a second sacred place (er Rafai) on the south. The inhabitants used to number, according to their own account, 2,000 guns, but the present population appears to be about 600 to 800 souls."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Aqraba had a population of 1,160; 1,158 Muslims and 2 Christians, increasing in the 1931 census, where Aqraba (together with the smaller location Kh. Fasayil) had a population of 1,478, all Muslims, in a total of 309 houses.

In 1945 Aqraba (including Kh. Fasayil) had a population of 2,060, all Arabs, with 142,530 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,383 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 19,732 used for cereals, while 55 dunams were built-up land.

Jordanian rule

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

Israeli rule

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Aqraba had been under Israeli occupation, transformed into Civil administration ruling system in 1982.

Palestinian rule

After 1994, the town came under the Palestinian National Authority.

Economy

The village's total land area is 34,700 dunams, of which 1,783 is built-up area. Around 62% of the remaining land is covered with olive and almond groves, 8% with other fruits and vegetables and the remaining 30% for grazing purposes.

Aqraba's unemployment rate is above 50%. Because the Palestinian labor force is unable to work in Israeli localities, the town's workers currently hold public and private jobs. Some also depend on agriculture and industrial workshops as main sources of income.

Some farmland near Yanun owned by 300 Aqraba villagers was defined as an IDF firing range in 1967, but exercises were customarily suspended for brief periods in the past to allow the villagers access to their lands,according to local Palestinians. Since then they claim, the area has not been used in as a fire range for two decades. Recently these villagers, who either farm or live there have been denied access. They claim that this restriction does not apply equally to an outpost, Givat 777, of the Israeli settlement of Itamar. They complain of settler harassment, the burning of vehicles, and of settler sheep flocks being led to greaze on their wheat fields. The IDF has replied that both Palestinians and Israeli settlers are treated in the same way.

In August 2014, the IDF brought in bulldozers to demolish 4 Palestinian homes on the outskirts of the town, in the al-Taweel neighbourhood, apparently claiming that they were built without a permit. The villagers claimed that the houses have been there for a century.

Government

Aqraba is located in Area B, giving the Palestinian National Authority control over its administration and civil affairs. The town is governed by a municipal council, consisting of eleven members including the mayor. In the 2005 Palestinian municipal elections, the Fatah-backed Future Palestine list won the majority of the seats (six) while the Hamas-backed al-Islamiya list won five seats. Jawdat 'Abd al-Hadi was elected mayor.