Jammala

Jammala (جمّالا) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 18 kilometers Northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,664 inhabitants in 2017.

Jammala, together with Beitillu and Deir 'Ammar, form the new town of Al-Ittihad.

Location of Al-Ittihad
Al-Itihad is located  12.5 km northwest of Ramallah. Al-Itihad is bordered by Kobar and Al-Zaytouneh lands to the east, Deir Abu Mash'al, Deir Nidham and 'Abud lands to the north, Shabtin and Deir Qaddis  to the west, and Ras Karkar, Kharbatha Bani Harith, Al-Zaytouneh and Al Janiya villages to the south.

History
Potsherds from the Hellenistic, Roman and  Byzantine eras have been found at Jammala. Jammala might be the same as Caphar Gamala, a place mentioned in the Luciani Epistola. The "Tomb of Gamiliel" was supposedly discovered here in 415 CE.

It has been suggested that this was Gemmail, mentioned in Frankish sources, but archeological evidence does not support this.

Ottoman era
Jammala 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 22 household;  who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 11,000 akçe. Potsherd from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.

In 1838 Jemmala was noted as Muslim village in the Beni Harith district, north of Jerusalem.

In May, 1870, Victor Guérin found the village, which he called Djemmala, to have 350 inhabitants. He further noted that some houses were constructed of stones, which by their size and regularity "spoke of ancient times". An Ottoman village list from about the same year, 1870, found that the village, called Dschemali,  had  a population of 246, in a total of  36  houses, though the population count included men, only.

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine  described Jemmala as: "a very small village, with a little mosque on high ground."

In 1896 the population of Dschemali was estimated to be about 312 persons.

British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jammala had a population of 119 Muslims, increasing in the  1931 census to 164 Muslims, in 53 houses.

In the 1945 statistics the population of Jammala was 200 Muslims, while the total land area was 7,170 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,  1,946  were  plantations and irrigable land, 1,032  for cereals, while 19 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 322 inhabitants in Jammala.

1967-present
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Jammala  has been under  Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 268, of whom 15 originated from the Israeli territory.

After the 1995 accords, 41.2% of Al-Ittihad land is defined as Area B land, while the remaining 58.8% is defined 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.