Jalbun () is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located 13 km east of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,493 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 2,813 in 2017.Projected Mid -Year Population for Jenin Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The primary healthcare facilities for Jalbun are described by the Ministry of Health as level 2.West Bank Health Care Facilities
History It has been suggested that Jalbun is identical to Gelbus, a place mentioned in Eusebius' Onomasticon. Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.Dauphin, 1998, p. 786
Ottoman era In 1517 Jalbun was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. During the 16th and 17th centuries, it belonged to the Turabay Emirate (1517-1683), which encompassed also the Jezreel Valley, Haifa, Jenin, Beit She'an Valley, northern Jabal Nablus, Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, and the northern part of the Sharon plain.
In 1838 it was noted as an inhabited village, Jelbon,Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, pp. 157, 171 located in the District of Jenin, also called Haritheh esh-Shemaliyeh district.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd app, p. 130, no 8
In 1870 Victor Guérin found that Jalbun was divided into two quarters, with houses built of adobe. In the centre was an ancient mosque, situated east to west, which Guérin took to be a former church. There were ancient cisterns dug into rocks.Guerin, 1874, pp. 334 -335
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly.
In 1882 Jalbun was described as a “small village in a remote position on one of the spurs of the Gilboa range. It is surrounded with plough-land, and built of mud and stone, and supplied by cisterns”," in the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 84
British Mandate era In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jalbun had a population of 410; 405 Muslims and 5 Christians,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p. 29 where the Christians were all Orthodox.Barron, 1923, Table XV, p. 47 The population increased in the 1931 census to 564, all Muslim, in a total of 119 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 68
In the 1944/5 statistics the population of Jalbun, (including Kh. el Mujaddaa) was 610, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 16 with 33,959 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 54 243 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 19,104 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 98 while 25 dunams were built-up (urban) land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 148
Jordanian era In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Jalbun came under Jordanian rule.
Israeli forces attacked Jalbun village, with small arms, on the 5 December 1949, they then expelled the inhabitants from their village causing fatal casualties amongst the villagers. The Jordanian government strongly protested against unwarranted Israeli action and called the UN Secretary-General to notify the United Nations Security Council to take prompt and strict measures to return expelled Palestinians to their village, to hand back their looted belongings, and to compensate the villagers for all losses and damages. S/1428 6 December 1949 Telegram from Ruhi Abdul Hadi, Minister Foreign Affairs, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to UN Secretary General
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 826 inhabitants.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 25
post-1967 Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Jalbun has been under Israeli occupation.
Demography
Local origins Jalbun's residents have their origins in settlers from Qabatiya, some of which originally came from Iraq.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 349 The majority of Jalbun's inhabitants belong to the Dar Abu Rub (Rbubiya) clan, which is one of four prominent clans in Qabatiya.
Among villages in the vicinity of Mount Gilboa and northern Samaria, the Dar Abu Rub clan is regarded as holy, with various folklore stories associated with them.
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links
Welcome To Jalbun, Palestine Remembered Jalbun, Welcome to Palestine Survey of Western Palestine, Map 9: IAA, Wikimedia commons