Al Jib

The 10th-century Jewish lexicographer, David ben Abraham al-Fasi, identified Al-Jib with the ancient Canannite and Israelite city of Gibeon, which view was corroborated also by the Hebrew Lexicon compiled by Wilhelm Gesenius and Frants Buhl ("now al-Ǧīb").[7] However, the first scientific identification of Al-Jib with the ancient Gibeon was made by Edward Robinson in 1838.[8][9] Archaeological excavations led by James Pritchard in 1956, 1957, and 1959 confirmed this identification with the discovery of the "Al Jib jar handles", 56 jar handles inscribed with the Semitic triliteral gb'n.[8] The inscriptions were dated to the latter years of the Kingdom of Judah and have been cross-referenced against genealogical lists in the Book of Chronicles. While they include many Benjaminite names, they also include non-Israelite names, attesting to the intermixing of local population.[8]

Gibeon prospered during the late Iron Age II, when the town had strong fortifications, a winery and a sophisticated water system. An intricate cemetery from the same period was discovered just east of the tell.[10]

Pottery and coins from the Late Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods dating to the reigns of Antiochus III and John Hyrcanus were discovered at the site.[10]

A vaulted building still remaining in the centre of Al Jib has been dated from between the mid-5th and mid-8th centuries CE.[11] The building has earlier been described as a church[12] from the Crusader era, with "total length of the chapel appears to have been 40 feet east and west, 22 feet north and south. The apses have been apparently built up. There were three bays of arches, and in the side walls are small doors with lintels".[13] D. Pringle dismissed the possibility that this was a former church, and suggest instead that it was an Umayyad palace building, or possibly dating from the Abbasid era.[14]

In 1152, during the Crusader era, a confrere of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Baldwin of Tournai, was granted a prebend relating to juxta Gabeon.[15] In 1172, after the fall of Jerusalem, Saladin halted at Al Jib, before continuing to Beit Nuba.[16]

El-Jib was described by the geographer Yâkût in 1225 as having two fortresses standing close together.[17]

Conrad Schick's diagram of the Al Jib tunnels, 1890

By the 1550s the agricultural revenues of Al Jib belonged to the endowment (waqf) of Mamluk Sultan Inal (r. 1453-61) in Egypt. However, three tribes of the Hutaym Bedouin were affiliated with the village. The taxes they paid plus levies normally earmarked for the military were in the 1550s designated for the waqf of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem.[18] In the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Jib, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds. The population was 103 households,[19] large enough to be divided into four quarters.[20] The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, grape syrup or molasse, in addition to occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 16,060 Akçe.[21]

In 1838 Edward Robinson described it as a village of moderate size, with the houses standing very irregularly and unevenly. He further noted "One large massive building still remains, perhaps a castle or tower of strength. The lower rooms a vaulted with round arches of hewn stones fitted together with great exactness. The stones outside are large; and the whole appearance is that of antiquity."[9] El-Jib was further noted as a Muslim village, part of the El-Kuds district.[22]

In 1863 Victor Guérin found that Al Jib had 500 inhabitants,[23] while an Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that the village had a population of 219, in a total of 65 houses, though that population count included men, only.[24][25]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "on the end of a hill, rising 300 feet above the valley. On the south is a narrow plain, and there is an open valley on the east, whilst to the north and west there is also a flat plain. The hill is thus isolated, and a position naturally of great strength. The houses cover the northern part of the hill. The village is of moderate size, the houses of stone, with a central tower, and massive foundations exist among the modern buildings. On the east, rather lower than the village and a little below the top of the ridge, is the spring, which issues from a cave. Below it are remains of a good-sized reservoir. There are many springs on the south and west, and caves in the southern side of the hill. Olives, figs, pears, apples, and vines are cultivated round the village and in the plain; there are also extensive corn-fields in the low ground."[26]

In 1896 the population of Ed-dschib was estimated to be about 567 persons.[27]

Al Jib, 1938-39

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jib had a population 465, all Muslims,[28] increasing in the 1931 census to 643, still all Muslim, in 153 houses.[29]

In the early 1930s, Grace Mary Crowfoot noted how the women of Al Jib and Kafr al-Labad made pottery (without a wheel), looking much like ware made in the 8th and 7th BCE.[30]

In the 1945 statistics, Al Jib had a population of 830 Muslims,[31] and a total land area of 8,205 dunams.[32] 1,132 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 4,754 for cereals,[33] while 57 dunams were built-up area.[34]

in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Al Jib came under Jordanian rule.

In 1961, the population of Jib was 1,123.[35]

Since the 1967 Six-Day war, al-Jib has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 1,173, 27 of whom originated from Israeli territory.[36]

Since 1967, Israel has confiscated 26.6% of Al Jib’s lands to establish large urban Israeli settlements Givon (1978), Giv'on HaHadashah (1980) and Giv'at Ze'ev (1982).[37]

Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, 7.5% of the total village area was classified as Area B, and the remaining 92.5% became Area C, under full Israeli control.[37]