al-Mughayyir ( ar, المغيّر) is a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 27 kilometers Northeast of Ramallah and 34 kilometers Southeast of Nablus, in the northern

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures ...

(PCBS), the village had a population of 2,368 inhabitants in 2007.

Location

Al Mughayyir is located north-east of Ramallah. It is bordered by

Fasayil Fasayil or Fasa'il ( ar, فصايل) is a Palestinian village in the northeastern West Bank, a part of the Jericho Governorate, located northwest of Jericho and about southeast of Nablus. The closest Palestinian locality is Duma to the west. Th ...

to the east, Turmus'ayya and Khirbet Abu Falah to the west,

Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...

and

Jalud Jalud ( ar, جاﻟﻭﺩ) is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank. It is approximately south of Nablus and is situated just east of Qaryut, south of Qusra and northeast of Shilo, an Israeli settlement. It ...

to the north, and Kafr Malik and Al Auja to the south.

History

The PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

'' (SWP) found here "ancient cisterns, and a rock-cut winepress near the village, which is well built of hewn stone."

Potsherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken ...

s from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

and

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

eras have been found here.Finkelstein et al, 1997, pp. 750-1

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the

Ottoman empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

with the rest of Palestine, appearing in the 1596 tax-records as ''Mugayyir'', located in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' of Jabal Qubal, part of

Nablus Sanjak The Nablus Sanjak ( ar, سنجق نابلس; tr, Nablus Sancağı) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part o ...

. The population was 7 households and 9 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 4500 akçe. Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here. In 1838 Edward Robinson noted ''el Mughaiyir'' located in ''El-Beitawy'' district, east of Nablus, while in 1852, he described the village as being of "considerable size", and built of hewn stones. He further noted that the villagers were "quite civil, and readily answered all our inquiries." In 1870

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...

found it largely deserted by its inhabitants, for lack of drinking water. He especially noticed a small

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

, which had a number of regularly cut stones that seem ancient. There were also several caves, dug in rock, that also seemed old. In 1882, the PEF's ''

'' described it as "a small village of stone houses, on a ridge, with olives to the west, and beautiful corn-land in the ''Merj Sia''. There is also corn-land on the north."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, ''Mughair'' had a population of 179, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus. p.
25
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census when ''El Mughaiyir'' had a population of 204, still all Muslims, in a total of 41 houses.Mills, 1932, p
63
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, ''El Mughaiyir'' (including ''Khirbat Jib'it'') had a population of 290 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
19
/ref> with total of 33,903 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 361 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,908 used for cereals, while 34 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 365 inhabitants.

1967-present

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

in 1967, al-Mughayyir has been under

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

Impact of the Israeli Occupation

According to the Oslo II Interim Agreement signed between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in September 1995, Al Mughayyir village was divided into politically classified area 'B' and area 'C'. Approximately 1,934 dunums (5.9% of the village's total area) is classified as area B, where the Palestinian National Authority has complete control over civil matters and Israel continues to have overriding responsibility for security. Area B constitutes most of all inhabited Palestinian areas, including municipalities, villages and some refugee camps. The majority of the village's population resides in area B which forms a small part compared to the village's total area. The rest of the village's area, constituting 31,121 dunums (94.1% of the total area) is classified as area C, where Israel retains full control over security and administration related to the territory. In area C, Palestinian building and land management is prohibited unless through consent or authorization by the Israeli Civil Administration. Most of the lands lying within the area C are agricultural areas and open spaces, in addition to Israeli military camps. According to villagers 75% of its land has been confiscated for Israeli settlements, military bases and natural reserves. On 12 November 2014, the al-Mughayyir mosque was damaged extensively when it was torched, reportedly by settlers in what was believed to be a price-tag attack.'Protection of Civilians: 11– 17 NOVEMBER 2014,'

OCHA The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

November According to Haaretz journalist Chaim Levinson, it was the tenth such mosque subject to arson in Israel and the West Bank since June 2011, and no investigation has ever led to an indictment. On the November 25, 2018, another Price tag attack left 8 cars damaged, and graffiti stating "Death to the Arabs", "Revenge", and "Price Tag".

2019 death

On January 26, 2019, 38-year-old local resident ''Hamdy Taleb Na'asan'' was shot in the back and killed, and 10 other Palestinians were wounded. The Israeli army believed that

Israeli settler Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

s from Adei Ad had fired the shots. The head of the al-Mughayyir village council told Haaretz: "We're not entirely sure who has hit by military fire and who has hit by settler (shooting), but there undoubtedly are some hit by the settlers, who had attacked the houses unprovoked." The Israeli settlers gave conflicting stories about how the disturbances started, but ended by telling that according to an Israeli hiker, claiming to stabbed, the altercation began some 200 meters from Adei Ad when three Arabs ambushed him and attempted to drag him to the village. The Israeli army expressed "doubts" that the teen was stabbed, while the Aa-Mughayyir villagers flatly denied it, and

Yesh Din Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights ( he, יש דין) is an Israeli organization working in Israel and in the West Bank. The organization was founded in 2005 by a group of women who previously worked with the organization Machsom Watch. The p ...

also said the settlers initiated the disturbances.

2020 death

In December 2020, Ali Ayman Abu Aliya, 13 years old, was killed during protests at the village against "the construction of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank". Abu Aliya was hit in the abdomen during clashes with the Israeli army, where the army had used 0.22-inch calibre

Ruger Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and Pr ...

ammunition. The UN Middle East envoy,

Nickolay Mladenov Nikolay Evtimov Mladenov ( bg, Николай Евтимов Младенов; born 5 May 1972) is a Bulgarian politician and diplomat who served as Bulgaria's Minister of Defense from 27 July 2009 to 27 January 2010 and as the minister of forei ...

, described the killing as "shocking and unacceptable". According to the DCIP; "Ali did not present any threat to Israeli forces at the time he was killed".Israeli forces shoot and kill 15-year-old Palestinian boy
Dec 04, 2020, dci-palestine.org

Tree wars

According to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' in October 2009, 200 olive trees belonging to villagers from al-Mughayyir were felled by settlers from the illegal settler outpost at Adei Ad, near Shvut Rachel. October is harvest time for olives and is often a time of "tension between Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers", and ''The Economist'' tied the destruction of trees to the settlers' '

price tag policy The price tag attack policy ( he, מדיניות תג מחיר), also sometimes referred to as "mutual responsibility" (), is the name originally given to the attacks and acts of vandalism committed primarily in the occupied West Bank by Isr ...

. In her 2009 publication entitled ''Tree Flags'', legal scholar and ethnographer Irus Braverman describes how Palestinians identify olive groves as an emblem or symbol of their longtime, steadfast agricultural connection ('' tsumud'') to the land. "More than 80,000 Palestinian farmers derive a substantial portion of their annual income from olives. Harvesting the fruit, pressing the oil, selling and sharing the produce is a ritual of life." In January 2019, twenty-five 35-year-old olive trees were cut down by vandals who left vehicle tracks leading to the nearby

Israeli outpost In Israeli law, an outpost ( he, מאחז, ''Ma'ahaz'' lit. "a handhold") is an unauthorized or illegal Israeli settlement within the West Bank, constructed without the required authorization from the Israeli government in contravention of Israe ...

of Mevo Shiloh, but no disciplinary action was taken by Israeli authorities.The sadists who destroyed a decades-old Palestinian olive grove can rest easy
by

Gideon Levy Gideon Levy ( he, גדעון לוי; born 2 June 1953) is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper '' Haaretz'' that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories ...

and

Alex Levac Alex Levac (Hebrew: אלכס ליבק, born 1944, Tel Aviv) is an Israeli photojournalist and street photographer. He was awarded the Israel Prize for photography in 2005.Haaretz photographer Alex Levac wins Israel Prize By Smadar Sheffi and ...

. January 24, 2019, Haaretz

Families

Principal families in the village include An Na'san, Dar abu Alya, Al Hajj Muhammad, Abu Na'im, and Abu Assaf.

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To al-Mughaiyir PIWP database profile
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 15:
IAAWikimedia commons

Al-Mughayyir Fact Sheet

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ar, معهد الابحاث التطبيقية - القدس) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research proje ...

, ARIJ
Al Mughayyir Village Profile
ARIJ,
Al-Mughayyir aerial photo
ARIJ
Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Al Mughayyir Village
ARIJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Mughayyir, Ramallah, Al- Villages in the West Bank Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate Municipalities of the State of Palestine