Potsherds from the
Middle Bronze Age,
Iron Age I, Iron Age II,
Hellenistic,
Roman and
Mamluk eras have been found at Deir 'Ammar. Two Iron Age
olive presses were also found here. Just southwest of the village is the
archeological site of
Khirbet e-Shune, a large ruin from the Iron Age, Hellenistic and
Early Roman periods that may be identified with the ancient town of
Ramathaim, which was a capital of a
toparchy under the
Hasmonean kingdom.
Ottoman era Dayr Ammar was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of
Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the
tax registers as being in the
nahiya of Al-Quds in the
liwa of
Al-Quds. It had a population of 33 household, who were all
Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards/fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 10,400
akçe. All of the revenue went to a
Waqf. Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here. In May, 1870,
Victor Guérin found the village to be of equal importance to
Jammala, and that there was a stream between the two villages where the women went for water when their own
cisterns went dry. An official Ottoman village list from about the same year, 1870, showed that
Der Ammar had 35 houses and a population of 226, though the population count included only men. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described '
Deir Ammar as: "a village of medium size on a hill, with a
well about 1/2 mile to the west." In 1896 the population of
Der Ammar was estimated to be about 357 persons.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, ''Dair 'Ammar'' had a population of 265
Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to 316 Muslims in 81 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population was 350 Muslims, while the total land area was 7,189
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,242 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,615 for cereals, while 15 dunams were classified as built-up areas.
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Deir 'Ammar came under
Jordanian rule. It was
annexed by Jordan in 1950. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 2,243 inhabitants in Deir 'Ammar.
1967-present After the
Six-Day War in 1967, Deir 'Ammar came under
Israeli occupation. After the
1995 accords, 41.2% of
Al-Ittihad land was classified as
Area B, while the remaining 58.8% was classified as
Area C. Israel has confiscated 858 dunams of land from Al-Ittihad for the construction of 4
Israeli settlements:
Nahl'iel,
Na'aleh,
Talmon and
Hallamish. ==References==