Nahalin, also spelled Nahaleen, () is a Palestinian village located in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine, to the southwest of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The village was well known for beekeeping and tens of beehives still exist in Nahalin today. The village is also known locally for its almond and olive trees, vineyards, parsley and vegetables, namely onions and beans. The built-up area of Nahalin consists of roughly 730 dunams, 20 of which make up the old center of the village. Palmer also writes that the name Nehalin is derived from Hebrew נחל, which he translates as "a water-course".
In Arabic, the name Nahl means a bee. After the Oslo Accords in 1995, 91% of Nahalin land was classified as Area C, under full Israeli control, while the remaining 9% is Area B, meaning that civil affairs have been under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and security matters under the control of the Israel Defense Forces.
History
Potsherds from the Byzantine period have been found at a hilltop. Modern Nahalin was built on the remains of a medieval-era village.
An archeological site known as Khirbet el-Kabra is situated on the western outskirts of the village.
Historically, Nahalin was frequented by Bedouin and was well known for its tradition of beekeeping. Later sources no longer refer to the Christian community, and Bagatti suggested the Christians in the village had converted to Islam.
The French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in the 1863, and he described it as "a jumble of small houses", with tobacco plantations surrounding it. Martin Hartmann found Nahalin to have 17 houses.
In 1883, PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Nahalin as "A village of moderate size, on a kind of natural terrace on the side of a ridge, with a great valley to the north..[..] To the north is a spring in the valley; there is also a second spring to the south.[..] To the east is a Mukam, with two large oak-trees, sacred to Haj 'Aleiyan." "There is a tradition about tomb of Haj 'Aleiyan, of whom it is related that, having been refused entrance into the mosques because of his ragged and filthy appearance, he spread his Abba on the sea and performed his prayers on it."
In 1896 the population of Nahalin was estimated to be about 162 persons.
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Nahhalin had a population of 316; 312 Muslims and 4 Christians, where the Christians were all Orthodox. In the 1931 census the population of Nahhalin was a total of 440, (3 Christians and the rest Muslim), in 98 inhabited houses.
In the 1945 statistics the population of Nahhalin was 620, all Muslims, who owned 16,144 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,068 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 4,659 for cereals, while 63 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Nahalin came under Jordanian rule.
On March 28, 1954, an Israeli raid by Unit 101 on an Arab Legion base 4 kilometers outside Nahalin, where the Israeli forces missed the base and placed explosive charges and destroyed seven houses, including the mosque of the village killed five national guards, three legionnaires (who were travelling from the Arab Legion base to the village) and one woman, and wounded eighteen civilians including men, women and children. According to David Tal, the raid was the first of Israel's reprisal raids against a military target in Jordanian controlled territory.
1967-present
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Nahalin has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 1,109.
From 1988-1991, journalist Helen Winternitz spent 3 years in Nahalin, publishing her experiences in the book A Season of Stones.
During the early months of the First Intifada on 13 April 1989, five villagers were killed by Israel Border Police during an early morning raid. The villagers claimed the security forces opened fire without provocation as they were leaving morning prayers at the mosque. Then General Amram Mitzna claimed his forces had come under attack from about 100 stone-throwing youths. On 30 April 1989, preliminary findings of a military inquiry into the events indicated that the border police unit involved in the raid had "lost control and fired excessively". In May 1989, the military inquiry announced that disciplinary action against four officers and seven border policemen would be taken for "misconduct".
During the funeral for those killed Walid Najajra, aged 23, was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers. He died a week later in the Makassed Hospital. Reports in the Israeli press stated that the army had launched an investigation.
After the 1995 accords, 9% of the village land has been classified as Area B, while the remaining 91% has been classified as Area C. Israel has afterwards used the confiscated land to construct Israeli settlements; 135 dunum of Nahalin land went to construct Geva’ot, 1166 dunum went to Betar Illit, and 110 dunum went to Rosh Zurim.
Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada, severe restrictions on movement have been placed on all residents. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), from the intifada's beginning in September 2000 until the road's November 2003 reopening with IDF checkpoint monitoring, the cluster of villages represented by Nahalin, Husan and Battir were totally closed off and the only access was on foot via the Husan/al-Khadr junction.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 6,409 in mid-year 2006, of whom 35% are under the age of 18. Approximately 150 - 200 persons are registered with UNRWA as refugees of the 1948 war. Villagers carry a West Bank ID card.