Deir Ballut () is a Palestinian town in the Salfit Governorate 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 ...

, south west 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 ...

. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 3,873 in 2017.

Location

Deir Ballut is west of Salfit. It is bordered by Kafr ad Dik to its east, Al Lubban al Gharbi to the south, Kafr Qasem to the west, and Rafat to the north.

History

Deir Ballut was inhabited during

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

rule in Palestine but was emptied of its residents in the 16th century. It was later resettled by people from Kafr ad-Dik. Earlier remains, including

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s from the

Iron Age 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 ...

, Roman,

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 ...

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 ...

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

and Crusader/ Ayyubid eras have been found here. The "great valley" of ''Wadi Deir Ballut'' was identified by Charles William Wilson (1836–1905) as the boundary between Judaea and

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

, as defined by first-century historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

.Wilson, c. 1881, vol 1, p
232
accessed 31 May 2018

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...

records in 1226 that "Deir al-Ballut was a village of district around ar-Ramla."

Ottoman era

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Deir Ballut belonged to the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and the

regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities." In 1838, it was noted as a

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 ...

village, ''Deir Balut'', in ''Jurat Merda'', south of

.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
126
/ref> In 1870 Victor Guérin found it to be a village of one hundred and fifty people. However, judging by the extent of the ruins that covered the hill where it stood, Guérin thought it had once been a large city. Most houses were built with large stones. In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a small village, partly ruinous, but evidently once a place of greater importance, with rock-cut tombs. The huts are principally of stone. The water supply is from wells." To the west of the village are rock-tombs, from a Christian age.

WWI and British Mandate era

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Deir Ballut was the site of a minor engagement between Turkish and British troops on March 12, 1918. 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 ...

Deir Ballut had a population of 384 inhabitants, all Muslim,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
26
/ref> rising to 532 in the 1931 census, still all Muslim, in a total of 91 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 720, all Muslim while the total land area was 14,789

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, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 508 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,488 for cereals, while 63 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas. File:Deir Ballut 1943.jpg, Deir Ballut 1943 1:20,000 File:Biddya 1945.jpg, Deir Ballut 1945 1:250,000

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, Deir Ballut came under Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population was 1,087.

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 Ballut has been under Israeli occupation. After the 1995 accords, 5.2% of village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 94.8% as Area C. Israel has confiscated 171 dunums of village land in for 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 ...

s of Peduel and Alei Zahav. By 2020, there were reports about untreated sewage from the nearby Israeli settlements of Leshem, Peduel and Beit Aryeh-Ofarim being dumped on Deir Ballut land. In January 2021 the Israeli military authority had some 3,000 olive trees planted by the villagers uprooted. Many has been planted as long as 15 years earlier. The destruction, on the grounds that the area in question was, in Israeli law, Israeli state property, took place six days after a legal appeal had been made against the order. The authorities then stated that the uprooting occurred before knowledge of the filed appeal papers came to their notice.Hagar Shezaf
'Israeli Authorities Uproot Thousands of Olive Trees Despite Palestinians' Appeal,'

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 ...

25 January 2021.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To Dayr BallutDeir Ballut
IWPS
Deir Balut
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14
IAAWikimedia commonsDeir Ballut Town (Fact Sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Deir Ballut Town Profile
ARIJ
Aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Deir Ballut
ARIJ
New Colonial Activity in Deir Ballut Village – Salfit District
12 March 2000, POICA
War against trees and sheep
10 March 2004, POICA
Israeli brought wild pigs destroy tens of dunums in Deir Ballut plain
30 July 2006, POICA
Kfar Ad Dik and Deir Ballut in Salfit Governorate receive New Land confiscation Order
10 January 2007, POICA
Deir Ballut's fruitful olive trees cut for Wall Constructions
3 March 2007, POICA
New Military Orders to Halt Construction of Seven Palestinian Houses in the Village of Deir Ballut
1 October 2007, POICA
The Israeli Army to demolish an under-construction school in Deir Ballut Village
14 February 2008, POICA
New house demolition orders in Deir Ballut village
19 June 2008, POICA
Palestinian homes due to be demolished over 'lack of permits' pretext in Deir Ballut Village
22 September 2010, ARIJ {{Authority control Towns in Salfit Governorate Salfit Governorate Municipalities of West Bank Municipalities of Palestine