Dura, Hebron

Dura
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicدورا
 • LatinDurrah (official)
Official logo of Dura
Dura is located in State of Palestine
Dura
Dura
Location of Dura within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°30′25″N 35°01′40″E / 31.50694°N 35.02778°E / 31.50694; 35.02778
Palestine grid152/101
State State of Palestine
GovernorateHebron
Government
 • TypeCity (from 1967)
 • Head of MunicipalityMr. Ahmad Salhoub
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Total39,336
Name meaningDura (proper noun) from Hebrew אֲדוֹרַים Adoraim[2]

Dura (Arabic: دورا) is a Palestinian city located eleven kilometers southwest of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 39,336 in 2017.[1] The current mayor is Ahmad Salhoub.

In 1517, Dura was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Syria. In the late Ottoman and early Mandatory periods, Dura was the only permanent settlement in the southeastern ridge of the central highlands. Starting as a village and evolving into a town, it sprawled across large territories, becoming a center for influential families, collectively referred to as Abu-Darham.[3]

After the British Mandate, in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Dura came under Jordanian rule. Dura was established as a municipality on January 1, 1967, five months before it came under Israeli occupation after the Six-Day War. Since 1995, it has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority, as part of Area A of the West Bank and as part of the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine.

  1. ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  2. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 393
  3. ^ Grossman, D. (1994). Expansion and Desertion: the Arab Village and its Offshoots in Ottoman Palestine (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi. pp. 220–221.