Ein Hanya Spring

Al-Walaja ( ar, الولجة) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, four kilometers northwest of Bethlehem. It is an enclave in the Seam Zone, near the Green Line. Al-Walaja is partly under the jurisdiction of the Bethlehem Governorate and partly of the Jerusalem Municipality. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,041 in 2007, mostly Muslims. It has been called 'the most beautiful village in Palestine'.

Al-Walaja was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in October 1948. It lost about 70% of its land, west of the Green Line. After the war, the displaced inhabitants resettled on the remaining land in the West Bank. After its capture during the Six-Day War, Israel annexed about half of al-Walaja's remaining land, including the neighborhood Ain Jawaizeh, to the Jerusalem Municipality. Large parts of the land were confiscated for the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier and the Israeli settlements of Har Gilo and Gilo, one of the Ring Neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

History

Ottoman period

In 1596, al-Walaja appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the ''Nahiya'' of Quds of the '' Liwa'' of Quds. It had a population of 100 Muslim households and 9 bachelors; an estimated 655 persons. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vines or fruit trees, and goats or beehives; a total of 7,500 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 116. Note typo, see talk−pageKhalidi, 1992, p. 322

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, ''el-Weleje'', in the ''Beni Hasan'' District west of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
123
/ref>

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 counted 78 houses and a population of 379, though the population count included men only.

In 1883, the PEF's "Survey of Western Palestine" described al-Walaja as a "good-sized" village built of stone.

During the latter half of Ottoman rule, al-Walaja was the administrative seat of the Bani Hasan subdistrict (''nahiya''), which consisted of over ten villages, including al-Khader, Suba, Beit Jala, Ayn Karim and al-Maliha, and served as the throne village of the al-Absiyeh family.

In 1896 the population of Al-Walaja was estimated to be about 810 persons.

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Walajeh'' had a population 910, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
14
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 1,206, still all Muslim, in 292 houses. Between 1922 and 1947 the population doubled.

In the 1945 statistics the population of ''El Walaja'' was 1,650, all Muslims, and the total land area was 17,708 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 17,507 dunams were owned by Arabs, 35 dunams were owned by Jews, and 166 were public property.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
58
2,136 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 6,227 for cereals, while 31 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian rule (1948–1967)

The old village, less than two kilometers northwest of the new town on the Israeli side of the Green Line, was captured by the Harel Brigade of the Palmach in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The village defense consisted of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Arab Liberation Army as well as a local militia. It was reclaimed by Arab forces more than once before it capitulated to Israeli troops on October 21, 1948.Morris, 2004, p
xx
village #349. Also gives cause of depopulation. Thousands of villagers fled. In the 1949 Armistice Agreements

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