Portal:Palestine/Selected article/6

Bani Na'im (Arabic: بني نعيم, Banî Na‘îm) is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. The town had a population of 20,084 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated at a higher elevation than most localities in the area with an altitude of 951 meters (3,120 ft). Known as Brekke in the pre-Roman era, it was later referred to as "Caphar Barucha" in the 4th-century. The town is best known as the burial place of Lot. Following the Muslim conquest, its name was Arabicized as "Kafr al-Barik." The tomb of Lot was turned into a mosque during Islamic rule and remained so under Crusader rule. Later, the Arab tribe of "Bani Nu'aym" settled there, giving the town its current name "Bani Na'im," first used by Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi in 1690. Bani Na'im grew in population during the British Mandate for Palestine. It joined the 1936–1939 Arab revolt as the site of a battle between the irregular Palestinian Arab forces of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and the British Army. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Bani Na'im was annexed by Jordan. It came under Israeli occupation after Israel captured the West Bank during the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1997, Bani Na'im was transferred to Palestinian administration and consequently became a municipality. Today, it serves as a commercial center for Hebron area villages, although most government services are in Hebron.