Madama, Nablus

Madama, Nablus
Municipality type C
Arabic transcription(s)
• Arabic	مادما
Madama
Madama, Nablus Location of Madama, Nablus within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°11′00″N 35°14′10″E / 32.18333°N 35.23611°E / 32.18333; 35.23611
Palestine grid	171/176
State	State of Palestine
Governorate	Nablus
Government
• Type	Municipality
Population  (2017)[1]
• Total	2,092
Name meaning	from personal name[2]

Madama is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate.

Madama is located 4.78 kilometres (3 mi) south of Nablus. It is bordered by Burin to the east, Asira al-Qibliya to the west and south, and Tell and Iraq Burin to the north.^[3]

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it was noted as Madama, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal, part of Nablus Sanjak. The population was 36 households, all Muslim. They 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 and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 6,250 akçe.^[4]

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.^[5]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Madama as: "a small hamlet in a valley."^[6]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Madama had a population of 170, all Muslims,^[7] increasing in the 1931 census to 211, still all Muslims, in a total of 67 houses.^[8]

In the 1945 statistics Madama had a population of 290 Muslims^[9] and a total of 3,361 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.^[10] Of this, 162 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,943 used for cereals,^[11] while 30 dunams were built-up land.^[12]

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 456 inhabitants in Madama.^[13]

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

After the 1995 accords, 62 % of Madama land was defined as Area B, while the remaining 32% was defined as Area C. Israel has confiscated 139 dunams of land from Madama in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar.^[14]

In 2006, an incident occurred in Madama in which neighbouring Israeli settlers both "poisoned the village's only well and shot at aid workers who came to clean it."^[15]

In May 2017, Israeli settlers, apparently from Yitzhar, attacked a Palestinian shepherd from Madama. The Palestinian was "bleeding profusely", and was sent to a hospital in Nablus. The Israeli soldiers "fired in the air, dispersing the assailants", but none of the attackers were arrested.^[16]

In April 2018, Israeli soldiers were filmed "cheering after shooting unarmed Palestinian with rubber bullets" by a roadblock by Madama.^[17]

In May 2019, it was reported that Israeli settlers from Yitzhar had started razing and levelling Palestinian-owned agricultural lands in Madama, in order to make a settler-only road.^[18]

In September 2019, settlers from Yitzhar stormed the southern part of Madama and set fire to olive trees.^[19]

• Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964). First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population (PDF).
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

• Welcome To Madama
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Madama Village Profile, Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, ARIJ
• Madama photo, ARIJ
• Development Priorities and Needs in Madama, ARIJ