al-Walaja

Today, the village of Al-Walaja is located on a hillside overlooking Nahal Refaim (a tributary of Wadi al-Sarar), near Beit Jala, with a population of approximately 3,000 residents. Until 1949, the village was situated on the opposite side of the valley, near the current sites of the Israeli moshavim of Ora and Aminadav. At that time, the total area of the village lands was approximately 18,000 dunums.

Under the terms of the armistice agreements signed between the occupying power and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan at the end of the 1948 war, the residents of Al-Walaja left their original village. Some relocated eastward and established what became known as "New Al-Walaja" on approximately 6,000 dunums of land that remained on the other side of the Green Line and continued to belong to the original village.

Following the o

ccupation of the West Bank in 1967, the occupying authority annexed approximately one-third of the area of the new village to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.