Al-Mughayyir, Ramallah

Location and name

Al-Mughayyir is located 18.6 km north-east of Ramallah. It is bordered by Fasayil to the east, Turmus Ayya and Khirbet Abu Falah to the west, Duma and Jalud to the north, and Kafr Malik and al-Auja to the south.

The name al-Mughayyir means 'the changer' and was given due to the continuously changing weather, a result of the village's location in a mountainous area above the central part of the Jordan Valley.

History

The PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found here "ancient cisterns, and a rock-cut winepress near the village, which is well built of hewn stone."

Potsherds from the Byzantine/Umayyad and Mamluk eras have been found here.

Ottoman period

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, appearing in the 1596 tax-records as Mugayyir, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal, part of Nablus Sanjak. The population was 7 households and 9 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 4500 akçe. Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.

In 1838 Edward Robinson noted al-Mughayyir was located in the Beitawy district, east of Nablus, while in 1852, he described the village as being of "considerable size", and built of hewn stones. He further noted that the villagers were "quite civil, and readily answered all our inquiries."

In 1870 Victor Guérin found "El-Merhaïr" to consist of a few houses and being largely deserted by its inhabitants, for lack of drinking water. He especially noticed a small mosque, which had a number of regularly cut stones that seem ancient. There were also several caves, dug in rock, which also seemed ancient. In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a small village of stone houses, on a ridge, with olives to the west, and beautiful corn-land in the Merj Sia. There is also corn-land on the north."

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, al-Mughayyir had a population of 179, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census when the village had a population of 204, still all Muslims, in a total of 41 houses.

In the 1945 statistics, al-Mughayyir (including Khirbat Jib'it) had a population of 290 Muslims, with total of 33,903 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 361 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,908 used for cereals, while 34 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian period

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 365 inhabitants.

1967-present

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, al-Mughayyir has been under Israeli occupation.

Impact of the Israeli occupation

According to the Oslo II Interim Agreement signed between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in September 1995, al-Mughayyir's lands were split between area 'B' and area 'C'. Approximately 1,934 dunums (5.9% of the village's total area) is classified as area B, where the Palestinian National Authority has control over civil matters and Israel continues to have overriding responsibility for security. Area B constitutes most of all inhabited Palestinian areas, including municipalities, villages and some refugee camps. The majority of the village's population resides in Area B which forms a small part compared to the village's total area. The rest of the village's area, constituting 31,121 dunums (94.1% of the total area) is classified as Area C, where Israel retains full control over security and administration related to the territory. In Area C, Palestinian building and land management is prohibited except through consent or authorization by the Israeli Civil Administration. Most of the lands lying within Area C are agricultural areas and open spaces, in addition to Israeli military camps. According to villagers 75% of its land has been confiscated for Israeli settlements, military bases and natural reserves.

On 12 November 2014, the al-Mughayyir mosque was damaged extensively when it was torched, reportedly by settlers in what was believed to be a price-tag attack. According to Haaretz journalist Chaim Levinson, it was the tenth such mosque subject to arson in Israel and the West Bank since June 2011, and no investigation has ever led to an indictment.

On the November 25, 2018, another price tag attack left eight cars damaged, and graffiti stating "Death to the Arabs", "Revenge", and "Price Tag".

2019 death

On January 26, 2019, 38-year-old local resident Hamdy Taleb Na'asan was shot in the back and killed, and 10 other Palestinians were wounded. The Israeli army believed that Israeli settlers from Adei Ad had fired the shots. The head of the al-Mughayyir village council told Haaretz: "We're not entirely sure who was hit by military fire and who was hit by settler (shooting), but there undoubtedly are some hit by the settlers, who had attacked the houses unprovoked." The Israeli settlers gave conflicting stories about how the disturbances started, but ended by telling that according to an Israeli hiker, claiming to stabbed, the altercation began some 200 meters from Adei Ad when three Arabs ambushed him and attempted to drag him to the village. The Israeli army expressed "doubts" that the teen was stabbed, while the al-Mughayyir villagers flatly denied it, and Yesh Din also said the settlers initiated the disturbances.

2020 death

In December 2020, Ali Ayman Abu Aliya, 13 years old, was killed during protests at the village against "the construction of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank". Abu Aliya was hit in the abdomen during clashes with the Israeli army, where the army had used 0.22-inch calibre Ruger ammunition. The UN Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, described the killing as "shocking and unacceptable". According to the DCIP; "Ali did not present any threat to Israeli forces at the time he was killed".

Tree wars

According to The Economist in October 2009, 200 olive trees belonging to villagers from al-Mughayyir were felled by settlers from the illegal settler outpost at Adei Ad, near Shvut Rachel. October is harvest time for olives and is often a time of "tension between Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers", and The Economist tied the destruction of trees to the settlers' 'price tag policy.

In her 2009 publication entitled Tree Flags, legal scholar and ethnographer Irus Braverman describes how Palestinians identify olive groves as an emblem or symbol of their longtime, steadfast agricultural connection (tsumud) to the land.

"More than 80,000 Palestinian farmers derive a substantial portion of their annual income from olives. Harvesting the fruit, pressing the oil, selling and sharing the produce is a ritual of life."

In January 2019, twenty-five 35-year-old olive trees were cut down by vandals who left vehicle tracks leading to the nearby Israeli outpost of Mevo Shiloh, but no disciplinary action was taken by Israeli authorities.

April 2024 settler rampage

On April 12, during the April 2024 Israeli settler rampages following the Killing of Benjamin Achimeir, settlers surrounded the village and about 500 of them (according to the head of the village council) broke into it, burning houses and vehicles, including a fire engine that was called to deal with the fires, and attacking residents with shots and stones. A resident of the village, 26-year-old Jihad Abu Alia was killed and 25 residents were injured in the attack. According to eyewitnesses, military forces arrived at the scene but did not try to stop the attack. The next day the village was attacked again and three of its residents were injured, one of them seriously File:A house set on fire by settlers.webm|A house set on fire by settlers during April 2024 attack File:Aftermath of settlers attack on a sheep pen.webm|Aftermath of settlers attack on a sheep pen File:Setting fire to a garage and a residence.webm|alt=Arson of a garage and a residence|Setting fire to a garage and a residence File:Aftermath of Israeli settler attack on al-Mughayyir.webm|Aftermath of Israeli settler attack on al-Mughayyir, April 24

May 2025 settler violence

Om May 18, Hilltop Youth settlers built an illegal outpost 100 meters from the closest house in the village. The 150 Palestinian inhabitants were forced to leave their homes. The settlers harassed and threw stones at the Palestinian villagers as they tried to take their belongings and dismantle the wooden and metal frames of their houses. Police and soldiers were present in the village but did not intervene.

Families

Principal families in the village include Na'san, Abu Aliya, al-Hajj Muhammad, Abu Na'im, and Abu Assaf.

Footnotes

Bibliography

References

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39. [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-26/ty-article-magazine/.premium/five-days-after-building-outpost-on-edge-of-west-bank-village-settlers-drove-locals-out/00000197-03ae-dc94-ab97-0fae41940000 Five Days After Building an Outpost on the Edge of a West Bank Palestinian Village, Israeli Settlers Drove Locals Out], by Hagar Shezaf. May 26 2025, [[Haaretz]]
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