. Jacob's Well and Joseph's Tomb are both identified, and Nablus is stated as being the location of Biblical
Shechem, in contrast to the modern identification with
Tell Balata. Balata is a village on an ancient site, and it has ancient
cisterns and canals. In 1896, a
Samaritan sarcophagus was found at the house of a local
fellah. The history of the village is tied to that
Jacob's Well and
Joseph's Tomb.
Benjamin of Tudela, (d. 1173), who visited the site in the 12th century, places it "A sabbath-way distance from
Sichem," and says it contains
Joseph's sepulcher.
Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229) wrote that it was "a village of the Nablus District in Filastin. The Jews say that it was here that Nimrud (Nimrod) ibn Ka´an threw Abraham into the fire; the learned, however, say this took place at Babil (Babylon), in Irak -and Allah alone knows the truth. There is here the spring called Ain al Khidr. Yusuf (Joseph) as Sadik -peace be on him! - was buried here, and his tomb is well known, lying under the tree". The church built around Jacob's Well and the lands of the village of Balata belonged to the
Benedictine nuns of
Bethany in the 12th century. Written documentation from this time of the
Crusades indicates that, Balata, also known as
Balathas, was a
Frankish settlement.
Ottoman era Balata al-Balad, like the rest of
Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the
census of 1596 the village appeared under the name
Balata as being in the
Nahiya (Subdistrict) of
Jabal Qubal, part of
Nablus Sanjak. It had a population of 34 households, all
Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 5,200
akçe. Ballata was destroyed in the early 19th century during local conflicts. It was used by barracks by
Jazzar Pasha's army. Later, it was repopulated by
Bedouins from
Beita, as well as others from the
Gaza and
Hebron (Duweiqat) areas, who had previously resided in Beita. In 1870,
Victor Guérin found here a small village, with about twenty houses. It had abundant waters, which were distributed to the fields in a canal, with "beautiful antique tiles". In 1882, the
Palestine Exploration Fund's
Survey of Western Palestine described Balata as a small
hamlet in the valley, of low howels, near a beautiful spring. On the east were figs and mulberries. A 1900 report by
Conrad Schick for the
Palestine Exploration Fund describes Balata as a
hamlet made up of a few huts surrounded by gardens that lay to the west of Jacob's Well and its accompanying church complex, at that time in ruins.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Balata had a population of 461; all
Muslim, increasing in the
1931 census to 574; 6 Christians and 568 Muslims, in a total of 114 houses. In the
1945 statistics, Balata had a population of 770 Muslims, with a total of 3,000 dunams of land, living in a built-up area of 25
dunams. Of the land, 95 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, while 1,832 dunams were used for cereals.
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Balata al-Balad came under
Jordanian rule. It was
annexed by Jordan in 1950. The
Palestinian refugee camp of
Balata was established directly adjacent to the village in 1950. Its population is significantly larger than that of the village of Balata. In 1961, the population was 2,292.
1967, aftermath Since the 1967
Six-Day War, Balata al-Balad has been under
Israeli occupation. During the
First Intifada, whenever the refugee camp was placed under
curfew by the
Israeli occupying authorities, so too was the village. The village contains an old mosque, five schools, and the village spring, which served as the main water source, is known as
Ain el-Khidr.
USAID sponsors a flagship program involving the Balata Al-Balad Women's Society in the village that seeks to increase coordination between community-based organizations and the Palestinian Ministry of Health to improve the provision of health care services. ==References==