Tuqu'
Tuqu' | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | تقوع |
| • Latin | Taqua (official) Teqoa (historical site) |
A sketch of "Tekoa - Fureidis, Palestine" | |
Tuqu' Location of Teqoa within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 31°38′11″N 35°12′52″E / 31.63639°N 35.21444°E | |
| Palestine grid | 170/115 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Bethlehem |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality (from 1997) |
| • Head of Municipality | Khaled Ahmad Hamida |
| Area (built-up) | |
• Total | 0.6 km2 (0.23 sq mi) |
| Population (2017) | |
• Total | 11,173 (inclusive of all four localities) |
| • Density | 19,000/km2 (48,000/sq mi) |
| Name meaning | "The ruin of Tekua", or "the place for pitching tents" |
Tuquʿ or Tequʿ (Arabic: تقوع) is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate, located 12 km (7.5 mi) southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. The modern part of the town was built up in 1948 and lies adjacent to Khirbet Tuqu' (also known as the ancient site of Teqoa Hebrew: תְּקוֹעַ, romanized: Təqōaʿ, or Crusader Thecoe), from which it takes its name. It is administered by the Tuqu' municipal council along with two other localities: Khirbet ad-Deir and Al-Halqum. As of 2019, the modern center of Tuqu' had a population of 8,767, Khirbet Tuqu' had a population of 131, Al -Halqum of 266, and Khirbet ad-Deir of 2,009.
The town and its villages are part of a wider village cluster - along with Za'atara, Beit Ta'mir, Hindaza, Nuaman, Ubeidiya, and al-Asakra - that the nomadic pastoralist Ta'amreh tribe of Palestinian Bedouins have lived in for at least hundreds of years. While Tuqu has a municipal jurisdiction of over 191,262 dunams, the built-up area is small, consisting of only 590 dunams, and 98.5% of the village's land was classified as Area C and 1.5% as Area B in the 1995 accords.
The Israeli settlement of Tekoa, initially established in 1975 as a Nahal military outpost, was built on 1071 dunams of land which, according to ARIJ, Israel confiscated from the Palestinian citizens of Tuqu'. Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law.