Al-Burj, Hebron

Al-Burj (البرج) is a Palestinian village located 20 km southwest of Hebron, in the Hebron Governorate of State of Palestine, in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 3,205 in 2017. The primary health care facilities for the village are designated by the Ministry of Health as level 2. Al-Burj is the birth place of Tareq Talahma, Acting Director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

History
Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.

Ottoman era
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted el-Burj as a place "in ruins or deserted," part of the area between the mountains and  Gaza, but subject to the government of el-Khulil. Robinson further noted: "The ruins here consists of the remains of a square fortress, about two hundred feet on a side, situated directly upon the surface the projecting hill [..] On the eastern and southern sides a trench has been hewn out in the rock, which sees to have extended quite around the fortress. The walls are mostly broken down [..] the general appearance of the ruin is decidedly that of a Saracenic structure; and I am disposed to regard it as one of the  line of strong Saracenic or Turkish fortresses, which appears once to have been drawn along the southern frontier of Palestine. Of these we had now listed four, viz. at Kurmul, Semua, Dhoheriyeh, and this at el-Burj".

In 1863 Victor Guérin called the place Khirbet el-Bordj and noted a maqam, shaped like a tower and dedicated to a Sheikh Mahmoud. He also noted "several caves, some of which are used today as refuge for the shepherds, when they come to graze their herds on this mountain."

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Palestine  described the place, which they called Burj el Beiyarah: "Remains of a fort 200 feet side, with a fosse  on the east and south, hewn in rock. Foundations only remain of small masonry, with the joints packed with smaller stones. Round it are caves in the rocks."

British Mandate era
At the time of the 1931 census of Palestine the population of al Burj was counted under Dura.

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

On 25 February 1953, five Arab shepherds were killed and mutilated by Israel in the so called   The Har-Zion Affair at al-Burj, including a 16-year-old.

In 1961, the population of Burj was 712.

1967, aftermath
After the Six-Day War in 1967, al-Burj  has been under Israeli occupation.