Deir al-Hatab () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village in the

Nablus Governorate The Nablus Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53 km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the ''muhfaza'' (seat) of the go ...

in the northern

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, located east of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

, near the neighbouring villages of Salem and Azmout. The village land extends over 12,000 dunams, of which 330 are built-up.

Amira Hass Amira Hass (; born 28 June 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper ''Haaretz'' covering Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, where she has lived for almost thirty years. Biogra ...

'Continuous invasions by settlers spoil the joy of Palestinians’ olive harvest,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

, 26 October 2014. The

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Elon Moreh Elon Moreh () is an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located northeast of the State of Palestine, Palestinian city of Nablus, on the slopes of the Mount Kabir ridge, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shomr ...

was illegally established within Deir al-Hatab's jurisdiction, taking up nearly 2,000 dunams of the village's land.Deir al Hatab Village Profile
ARIJ In June, 2016, Deir al-Hatab and other towns and villages in the area had to go without running water for weeks, as the Israeli

Mekorot Mekorot (, lit. "Sources") is the national water company of Israel and the country's top agency for water management. Founded in 1937, it supplies Israel with approx. 80% of its drinking water and operates a cross-country water supply network kno ...

reduced the amount of water it sold to the Palestinians.

Location

Deir al Hatab is located east of

. It is bordered by Beit Dajan to the east, Al ‘Aqrabaniya and ‘

Azmut ’Azmut () is a Palestinian people, Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located five kilometers northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a populatio ...

to the north, ‘Azmut and Nablus to the west, and

Salim Salim, Saleem or Selim may refer to: People *Salim (name), or Saleem or Salem or Selim, a name of Arabic origin **Salim (poet) (1800–1866), Kurdish poet **Saleem (playwright), Palestinian-American gay Muslim playwright, actor, DJ, and dancer * ...

to the south.

History

There was a human habitation here during the

Iron Age II The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

time. Ceramics from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era have been found here. Much pottery from the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

era have been found around the

maqam Maqam, makam, maqaam or maqām (plural maqāmāt) may refer to: Musical structures * Arabic maqam, melodic modes in traditional Arabic music ** Iraqi maqam, a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq * Persian maqam, a notion in Persian clas ...

of Sheikh Ahmed.

Ottoman era

In 1838, in the Ottoman era, Edward Robinson noted Deir al-Hatab as a village in the same area as the villages

and

, all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

villages that were part of the ''El-Beitawy'' district, east of Nablus. When

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

visited in 1870, he found that Deir al-Hatab had at most 100 inhabitants. He further noted that the many dilapidated houses showed that the village had formerly been more important. The ancient

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s dug into the rock were dry, so the women fetched water at ''A'ïn Salem''. In 1882, 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 completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' described it as a "small village, with olives and a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

to the south, standing on a hill slope."

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Deir al-Hatab had a population of 234, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
24
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 277, still all Muslim, in total of 51 houses.Mills, 1932, p
60
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, ''Deir el Hatab'' had a population of 370, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> with 11,532

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 679 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,172 used for cereals, while 33 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 481 inhabitants.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Deir al-Hatab has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. The population of ''Deir el Hatab'' in the 1967 census conducted by Israel was 543, of whom 4 originated from Israeli territory. In 1987, 1,120 people were living in Deir al-Hatab. After the 1995 accords, 42% of village land was classified as Area B, while the remaining 58% was classified as

Area C Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...

. Since the Israeli occupation, the Israelis have confiscated 659 dunams of the village's land for the

.Spatial and Socioeconomic analysis at microlevel: Villages and Hamlets (Class E). Local Government Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority. Chapter 4. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

, Deir al-Hatab had a population of over 2,213 inhabitants in 2007 and 2,838 in 2017.2007 PCBS Census
.

. p.110. Around 33% of households in the village have 1-5 members, 51% have 6-10 members and 17% have over 10 members. About 10% of the population over ten years of age is illiterate, women making up 78% of this statistic. In addition, 43% of the student population are females. Agriculture forms 24% of Deir al-Hatab's economy while small business, work in the government and construction form the remainder. Over half of the population is of working age (15-64) and women made-up half of the labor force in 1999. Deir al-Hatab's village council claims unemployment has dramatically increased from 30% in 1999 to 90% in 2001. Because

and its outposts overlooks and is in proximity to half of the land, Palestinian farmers have in the last decade been allowed only a few days each year to tend their fields, after coordinating with the Israel Defense Forces. From 2002 to 2007 the IDF banned the villagers from working their land, and settlers began to plant new olive trees and grapevines on private lots. A 'disruptive use' injunction was issued in January 2007 by Major General

Yair Naveh Yair Naveh (; born 5 September 1957) is a major general in the Israel Defense Forces and a former Deputy Chief of the General Staff. In 1975, he was drafted into the IDF where he served in all positions in the Golani Infantry Brigade from Com ...

, allowing Palestinian authorities to remove settlers who had engaged in illegal cultivation of local lands in the preceding 3 years. The ordinance has not deterred settler appropriation of Deir al-Hatab's land, according to

, and injunctions are often not implemented. In 2007, Israeli settlers from Elon Moreh put a plastic swimming pool by the spring which supplies Deir al-Hatab with 40% of its drinking water. They diverted the water from the spring to their pool. The contaminated waste water from this swimming pool then reentered into the drinking water of Deir al-Hatab. In November, 2021, the child Mohammad Da’das (age given variously as 13 or 15 years old), was shot in the abdomen and killed by an Israeli soldier in Deir al-Hatab. Palestinian PM

Mohammad Shtayyeh Mohammad Ibrahim Shtayyeh (; born 17 January 1958) is a Palestinian politician, academic, and economist who served as Prime Minister of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority from 2019 to 2024. On 26 February 2024, he and h ...

condemned the killing as "

state terrorism State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state's citizens. It contrasts with '' state-sponsored terrorism'', in which a violent non-state actor conducts an act of terror under sponsorship of a state. ...

".Premier says Israel’s killing of a Palestinian child is ‘state terrorism’
November 5, 2021,

WAFA Wafa (, , an acronym of , ), also referred to in English as the Palestine News Agency and the Palestinian News & Info Agency, is the official state media, state-run news agency of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Before the formation of ...

References

Bibliography

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

External links

Welcome To Dayr al-Hatab
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 12
IAAWikimedia commons Deir al Hatab Village Profile

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Deir el Hatab, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development priorities and needs in Deir al Hatab
ARIJ {{Authority control Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine