Al-Walaja

This article is about the Palestinian village southwest of Jerusalem. For the battle during the Arab invasion of Persia, see Battle of Walaja.
Al-Walaja
Municipality type D (Village council)
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicالولجة
 • LatinAl-Walaja (official)
Al-Walaja is located in State of Palestine
Al-Walaja
Al-Walaja
Location of al-Walaja within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°44′8″N 35°9′39″E / 31.73556°N 35.16083°E / 31.73556; 35.16083
State State of Palestine
GovernorateBethlehem
Founded1949
Government
 • TypeVillage council
 • Head of MunicipalitySaleh Hilmi Khalifa
Area
 • Total
17,708[1] dunams (17.7 km2 or 6.8 sq mi)
Population
 (2017)[2]
 • Total
2,671
Name meaning"The bosom of the hill"[3]
al-Walaja
الولجة
al-Walaje, el-Welejeh
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Walaja (click the buttons)
al-Walaja is located in Mandatory Palestine
al-Walaja
al-Walaja
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°44′27″N 35°8′46″E / 31.74083°N 35.14611°E / 31.74083; 35.14611
Palestine grid163/127
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulationOctober 21, 1948[5]
Area
 • Total
17,708 dunams (17.7 km2 or 6.8 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
1,650[1][4]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesAmminadav[6]
el-Welejeh in the 1870s

Al-Walaja (Arabic: الولجة) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine, 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 2,671 in 2017.[2] It has been called 'the most beautiful village in Palestine'.[7]

Al-Walaja was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in October 1948.[5] 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 occupation by Israel 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 Settlements of East Jerusalem.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Hadawi58 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  3. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 338
  4. ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Morris_2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 323
  7. ^ David Dean Shulman, "On Being Unfree: Fences, Roadblocks and the Iron Cage of Palestine", Manoa Vol. 20, No. 2, 2008, pp. 13-32