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. In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village,
el-Weleje, in the
Beni Hasan District west of
Jerusalem. 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, 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, 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. Thousands of villagers fled. In the
1949 Armistice Agreements, the Green Line was drawn through the village with 70% of the land and 30 water springs on the Israeli side. The village was completely destroyed during the 1948 war and the villagers rebuilt it east of the 1949 Armistice Line inside the West Bank territories. In January 1952, an
IDF patrol seized two Arab villagers in a field 300 meters on the Jordanian side of the armistice line and brought them to an abandoned house in Walaja, where they were killed. Israel told UN investigators that they had been shot inside Israeli territory when they had jumped out from behind a rock. The UN and Jordanian cross-examiners were unable to obtain an Israeli admission, but the Israeli delegate on the Mixed Armistice Commission wrote privately to his superior that the allegations were true but the patrol was not acting under orders.
1967 and aftermath After the
Six-Day War in 1967, the whole of Al-Walaja has been under
Israeli occupation. Israel redrew the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, annexing half of al-Walaja's land that had remained after the 1948 war. The splitting of the village caused various problems. Cars of local residents of both parts were confiscated by the Israeli Border Police for trespassing illegally into Israel. In 2003 through January 2005, Israel demolished Palestinian houses in Ain Jawaizeh and issued demolition orders against 53 other houses. Land confiscation orders issued by the IDF in August 2003 showed that the route of the barrier will completely surround the residents of the village, allowing them only one entry/exit point. The two main access routes for Ain Jawaizeh to Bethlehem were both closed, and the only access road to Jerusalem was restricted for access to Har Gilo by Israeli-licensed vehicles only. In April 2010,
Gush Etzion settlers and residents of al-Walaja united to protest the extension of security fences around Jerusalem. The event was partially coordinated by the
Kfar Etzion-based organization ארצשלום ("Land of Peace") dedicated to building contacts between Jewish settlers and West Bank Arabs. In 2012, a group of
Harvard students were expelled from al-Walaja when they tried to visit a house which was due to be demolished due to the
West Bank wall. In September 2018, four houses built without planning permission were destroyed by Israeli border police, injuring about 40 people in the process. Lawyer Itai Peleg representing some of the villagers wrote that Israel had for years refused to approve a master plan for the village and that "there is no dispute that the State of Israel and its various authorities and the Jerusalem municipality give the residents of al-Walaja no service whatsoever other than ‘home demolition service.’" On 1 January 2025, Israeli forces demolished a house belonging to a Palestinian family in al-Walaja. ==Demography==