Ta'amreh (in Arabic: التعامرة) is a large Bedouin tribe in Palestine. Today, most of the tribe's members live in the Palestinian Authority territories south and east of Bethlehem, and in the Kingdom of Jordan. Members of the tribe have established several permanent settlements in the Bethlehem area, known as the 'Arab et-Ta'amreh village cluster (Za'atara, Beit Ta'mir, Hindaza, Tuqu' with Khirbet al-Deir, Nuaman, Ubeidiya, Al-Masara and al-Asakra).
The tribe participated in the 1834 Peasants' Revolt .
Some of the tribe members were interviewed for a Channel 1 programme by Tzvi Misinai, a former high-tech professional who researches the Jewish ancestry of some Palestinians, and they claimed Jewish roots. Tzvi Misinai also included the story of the Ta'amreh tribe in "The Engagement Book."[1] According to his study, the Ta'amra tribe was originally a tribe of permanent residents. The first to leave, did so with their flocks due to a lack of grazing land in the area. Thus, the Ta'amreh people became nomadic, in search of grazing grounds. Misinai notes that in the cemetery of the Ta'amreh tribe near the ruins of Ta'amreh, there are two old gravestones at the highest point with Star of David engravings, which are partially damaged. According to him, these were tampered with by the locals to hide their Jewish ancestry after being forced to convert to Islam.
In 1878, C. R. Conder described the Ta'amreh as being of fellah origin, wearing turbans, and cultivating corn.[2]
In the 1930s, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi wrote that the tribe consisted of about 4,000 people.[3]
Members of the Ta'amra tribe were involved in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran caves and the Murabba'at caves in the Judaean Desert.[4]