Several scholars have identified Jiljliya as one of several biblical places named
Gilgal.
Roman,
Byzantine/
Umayyad, Pottery sherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here. He further noted it as a Muslim village, located in the
Beni Zeid district, north of Jerusalem. In 1870
Victor Guérin found
Djildjilia to have 200 inhabitants, while an Ottoman village list of about the same year counted 14 houses and a population of 49 in
dschildschilija, though the population count included only men. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described
Jiljilia as: "A large village on the top of a high hill, with a
well to the south, and a few olives. The ridge is arable land." In 1896 the population of
Dschildschilja was estimated to be about 138 persons.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities,
Jeljelieh had a population of 162 Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to 212 Muslims, in 47 houses. In the
1945 statistics, the population was 280 Muslims, while the total land area was 7,283
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,897 were plantations and irrigable land, 1,940 for cereals, while 16 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Jiljilyya came under
Jordanian rule. It was
annexed by Jordan in 1950. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 490 inhabitants in Jiljiliya.
Post-1967 Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Jiljilyya has been under
Israeli occupation. After the
1995 accords, 99.3% of village land was classified as
Area A, while the remaining 0.7% was classified as
Area B.
Death of Omar Assad In January 2022, 78-year-old Omar Assad died after being detained by Israeli soldiers. Assad had lived in the US from 1967, was a US citizen, and had returned to his childhood village for his retirement in 2010. The Israeli spokesman stated that Assad was alive when he was released, but this was contradicted by several eye-witnesses. The autopsy found that he had died from “a stress-induced heart attack probably brought on by being bound and gagged and held in a cold construction site.” In February, the US State Department said it wanted a “criminal investigation” into his death. In October, Israeli spokesperson claimed that a settlement had been reached with the Assad family, and that Israel would pay them 500,000 shekels, (~$141,000), in return for their withdrawal of the case against the Israeli state. However, the family denied this, saying that they had rejected the offer. ==References==