Al-Walaja
| al-Walaja | |
|---|---|
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | الولجة |
| • Also spelled | al-Walaje (official) |
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 al-Walaja
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| Coordinates: 31°43′53″N 35°09′49″E / 31.73139°N 35.16361°ECoordinates: 31°43′53″N 35°09′49″E / 31.73139°N 35.16361°E | |
| Governorate | Bethlehem |
| Founded | 1949 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Village council |
| • Head of Municipality | Saleh Hilmi Khalifa |
| Area | |
| • Jurisdiction | 17,708 dunams (17.7 km2 or 6.8 sq mi) |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Jurisdiction | 2,041 |
| Name meaning | "The bosom of the hill" |
| al-Walaja | |
|---|---|
| Arabic | الولجة |
| Also spelled | al-Walaje, el-Welejeh |
| Subdistrict | Jerusalem |
| Palestine grid | 163/127 |
| Population | 1,650 (1945) |
| Area | 17,708 dunams 17.7 km² |
| Date of depopulation | October 21, 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Aminadav |
Al-Walaja or al-Walaja (Arabic: الولجة) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, four kilometers northwest of Bethlehem City. It is an enclave in the Seam Zone, near the Green Line. Al-Walaja is partly under the jurisdiction of the Bethlehem Governorate and partly of the Jerusalem Municipality. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,041 mostly Muslim inhabitants in 2007. It has been called 'the most beautiful village in Palestine'.
Al-Walaja was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in October 1948. It lost about 70% of its land, west of the Green Line. After the war, the displaced inhabitants resettled on the remaining land in the West Bank. After the Six-Day War, Israel annexed about half of al-Walaja's remaining land, including the neighborhood Ain Jawaizeh, to the Jerusalem Municipality. Large parts of the land were confiscated for the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier and the Israeli settlements of Har Gilo and Gilo, one of the Ring Neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
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 and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, vines or fruit trees, and goats or beehives.
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