Al-Judeira

Al-Judeira (جديره) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate of the State of Israel, in the central West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,634 in 2017.

Toponymy
E. H. Palmer of the Palestine Exploration Fund wrote that Al-Judeira means "sheep-fold", after the גדרה, "fold".

Location
Al Judeira is located (horizontally) 9.3 km north-west of Jerusalem. To the east is Kalandia, Rafat is to the north, Al Jib is to the west, and Bir Nabala is to the south.

Ancient period
Several scholars have suggested that Judeira is the site of Gederah in Benjamin, which is mentioned in the Bible as home to Yozabad the Gederathite, a Benjaminite warrior who defected to David. It is mentioned shortly after the nearby sites of Azmaveth (identified with modern-day Hizme), Anathoth (probably 'Anata) and Gibeon (Al Jib).

Ottoman era
In the Ottoman census of the 1500s,  Jadira was noted as a village located in the nahiya of Jerusalem.

In 1838 el-Jedireh was noted as a Muslim village, located north of Jerusalem.

In 1863 Guérin described it as a small village, with a mosque consecrated to a Sheikh Yassin. In the courtyard in front of this sanctuary, he noticed what was possibly an old Corinthian capital, which had been made into a mortar, where the villagers pounded coffee. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that the village had a population of 40, in a total of 13 houses, though the population count only included men. It was also noted that it was located east of Al Jib.

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a small village on a slope, surrounded by figs and olives, and with rock-cut tombs to the north."

British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Ijdireh had a population of 122, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 139 Muslim inhabitants, in 31 inhabited houses.

In the 1945 statistics Judeira had a population of 190 Muslims, with 2,044 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 353 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,314 used for cereals, while 7 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, al-Judeira came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 328 inhabitants in Judeira.

Post-1967
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, al-Judeira has been under Israeli rule.

After the 1995 accords, 25.4% of the village’s land was classified as Area B, the remaining 74.6% is classified was Area C.

In 2005, Israel started the construction of a separation barrier around al-Judeira, Al Jib, Bir Nabala, Beit Hanina al-Balad and Kalandiya. The wall was built on Palestinian land seized by Military Orders. The wall completely surrounds the villages, forming an enclave.