Iron Age to Mamluk period Sherds from the
Iron Age II,
Hellenistic, periods have been found here. Sherds have also been found here from the
Crusader/
Ayyubid and
Mamluk periods.
Ottoman period Sherds from the Early
Ottoman period have been found there. In 1838
el-Janieh was noted as partly a Greek
Christian and partly a
Muslim village, part of
Beni Harith area, located north of Jerusalem. Al-Janiya, together with
er-Ras, were the chief towns for the ruling family of Simhan. The chief
Sheikh of the Simhan family was Isma'il, who was killed by
Ibrahim Pasha in the
1834 uprising. After Isma'il, Hasan es-Sa'id and Mohammah ibn Isma'il became the rulers. In 1870,
Victor Guérin found it to be a village of 400 inhabitants, all
Muslims except a few
"Greek schismatics". He also suggested that the
mosque stood on the site of a previous church. An Ottoman village list from about same year found that the village had a population of 29 "Greeks" in 8 houses, and 268 Muslims in 58 houses, though the population survey only counted the men. It was noted that it was located NWW of
Ramallah. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A small village on high ground, with two
Mukams and a
well on the east; on the north is a modern graveyard. Olives exist round." Two different estimates were given of the population of
Ed-dschanije in 1896, one gave a population of 528, while another estimate gave the population to be 342 Muslims and 36 Christians.
British Mandate In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Al-Janiya had a population of 180; 177 Muslims and 3 Orthodox Christians. This had increased by the time of the
1931 census to 250, 245 Muslims and 5 Christians, in 60 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population was 300, all Muslims, while the total land area was 7,565
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,961 were plantations and irrigable land, 1,423 for cereals, while 40 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.
Jordanian period In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Al-Janiya came under
Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 451 inhabitants in
Janiya.
Post-1967 Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Al-Janiya has been under
Israeli occupation. After the
1995 accords, 7.9% of village land was classified as
Area B, the remaining 92.1% as
Area C. 867 dunams of land was confiscated for the
Israeli settlement of
Dolev, in addition to 1,667 dunams for the settlement of
Talmon. In 1989, 4,000 acres of privately owned land in Al-Janiya was confiscated and given to the Israeli settlement of
Talmon. By 2010, Al-Janiya had lost 10,000 acres due to Israeli confiscations. By 2012, Israeli settlers regularly came armed, taking control of a local water source. The spring,
Ein El Masraj, earlier used for irrigation by Al-Janiya, had been physically taken over by Israeli settlers from
Talmon, who had renamed it
Ein Talmon. The spring
Ein El Mallah, used by Al-Janiya both for domestic use and irrigation, was in danger of being taken over. The spring pools are being used by children for cooling down during the hot months. By 2014, farming on local land was difficult, since Israeli authorities have declared much of it, enclosing olive groves, a 'closed military zone', which Palestinian farmers are allowed to access on average only two days a year, and many of the trees are uprooted by settlers. In November 2016,
Israeli settlers attacked four Palestinian farmers while they were harvesting their olives. The settlers, according to Palestinian witnesses and victims, shouted "Kill the Arabs" and "we will kill you, you sluts", and were armed with knives and clubs. After beating them up, they were filmed returning to an outpost below
Neria, Mateh Binyamin. == Maqam of ash-Sheikh Ahmed a-Dajani ==