The Population
Nisf Jubeil is inhabited by Christians and Muslims. Today’s Muslims came from surrounding villages such as Beit Imrin (Yassine Samara), and Burqa (Mahmoud Daghlas). While Christian families also came from Sebastia (Jaber) and Beit Jala (Abu Dayeh). Other Christians are believed to have originated from the ancient clan of Ghassanides, and some are claimed to have come from Jordan.
The elders in the village believe that the original population of the village was only Christian, which coincides with the story of Nisf Jubeil being a crusader property in the 1200s. However, witnessing the 20th century change in population demographics, gives an indication of the possible demographic changes back in the 13th and 14th century.
It is believed that the original Christian inhabitants were mainly farmers and shepherds. But as time passed by, changes came, making the younger population interested in having a different kind of life and the unstable living conditions of the town must have led them to flee, resulting in the significant decrease of the overall number of inhabitants, and specifically Christians in Nisf Jubeil. It is evident that the Christians living in the neighboring villages – and specifically Burqa, Sebastia, and Beit Imrin (until the 1930’s), were originally from Nisf Jubeil (according to Hutteroth and AbdelFattah, 1977). On the other hand, natural disasters, conflicts and family disputes resulted in people moving to Nisf Jubeil, and specifically, Muslim inhabitants from Beit Imrin and Burqa.
The oldest population record available is from 1596, where the village’s population was 330 people: 150 Muslims and 180 Christians. Another source shows that in 1838 there were more than 200 Christians, of whom the vast majority were Orthodox, alongside the appointed priest for the Church at that time, however it is unclear the number of Muslims at the time.
In 1922, the population of Nisf Jubeil was 162 people. The 210 inhabitants of 1931 were half Christians and half Muslims and lived in 56 houses. In 1945 the residents of Nisf Jubeil were 260: 180 Christians and 80 Muslims (according to Hutteroth and AbdelFattah, 1977), and in 1961 they dropped to 228 given several of the Christian inhabitants, which have better economic possibilities, started to migrate and leave the village. The migration included to Christian areas like Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Zababde, and then other mixed communities like al-Ram and Jerusalem (and potentially Burqa). In the same year, the number of Muslim inhabitants were 178. While in 1967, with the brutal military occupation of the area, several of the village inhabitants migrated to Jordan and the Gulf.
According to the 2007 census, the village is inhabited by 400 people, while today, in 2019, the inhabitants of Nisf Jubeil are 485, with a growth of only 9 people per year since 2017 (PCBS statistics). It is left with only two Christian elderly women, in their eighties. One of them travels back and forth between her house in Nisf Jubeil and the houses of her sons in other cities, while the health condition of the second lady does not allow her to move as much, so she chose to stay in her house – one of the oldest maintained houses in the village (Heba Hrimat, 2017).
The people and families include:
- Abdel Hamid Mahmoud (Burqa)
- Awayes (Burqa) – also known as Al-Qaroot
- Barakat (originally from Egypt)
- Ismair (اسمير) (Nist Jubeil) – also known as Khoury and Mousa al Awad, they are one family
- Al-Jaber (Sebastieh)
- Khader (Nisf Jubeil)
- Musallam (Nisf Jubeil)
- Odeh Al Mousa
- Ormeit (Beit Imrin)
- Salah
- Al Sa’id
- Yassine Samara (Beit Imrin)