Ni'lin () is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, located west of Ramallah. Ni'lin is about east of the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line) bordered by Deir Qaddis, the Israeli settlements of Nili and Na'ale to the northeast, the village of al-Midya and Modi'in Illit (Kiryat Sefer) settlement bloc are to the south, Budrus (4 km) and Qibya (5 km) villages are located to the northwest. The town's total land area consists of approximately 15,000 dunams of which 660 is urban. Under the Oslo II agreement, 93% of town lands has been classed as 'Area C'.
Most of the town's inhabitants rely on agriculture for income and prior to the outbreak of the Second Intifada, many had jobs in construction in Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 5,118 inhabitants in 2017.
Situated 262 meters (860 feet) above sea level, Ni'lin has mild winters and hot, dry summers with temperatures averaging 32 °C (88 °F) during the day.
History
Potsherds have been found dating back to the late Iron Age (8th–7th century B.C.E.), and the Hellenistic, Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid, Mamluk, and early Ottoman periods.
A person named Isaac de Naelein is mentioned in a Crusader text of the year 1167 in relation to nearby Casale St. Maria (Aboud).
Ottoman era
In 1517, Ni'lin was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine.
In 1552, Ni'lin was mentioned as an inhabited village. Haseki Hürrem Sultan, the favourite wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, endowed 18 carats of its the tax revenues to her Haseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem. Administratively, the village belonged to the Sub-district of Ramla in the District of Gaza.
In 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Ramla of the Liwa of Gaza. It had a population of 72 households, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, fruit trees, goats, and/or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 3,500 akçe. All of the revenue went to a Waqf.
In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village (called Na'lin) in the Ibn Humar area in the District of Er-Ramleh.
An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Ni'lin had 156 houses and a population of 493, though the population count included only men. It was described as bordering Deir Qaddis.
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Ni'lin (called N'alin) as a "large village on high ground, surrounded by olives, and supplied by cisterns."
On 28 December 1917, during World War I, the village was captured by the British from Ottoman forces. The British held the line from here eastwards to Beitin and westwards to the coast, north of Jaffa.
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the village, (named Na'lin), had a population of 1,160 inhabitants, all Muslims, while in the 1931 census the population of Ni'lin was 1249 (one Christian and the rest Muslim), in 299 inhabited houses.
In the 1945 statistics the population of Ni'lin was 1,420, all Muslims, who owned 15,875 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 5,921 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,053 dunams were used for cereals, while 29 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Ni'lin came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.
In 1961, the population of Ni'lin was 2,055.
Post 1967
After the Six-Day War in 1967, Ni'lin came under Israeli military occupation.
Since the 1995 accords, 93% of town lands has been classed as Area C, and the remaining 7% as Area B.
According to the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem, Israel has confiscated Ni'lin land for the construction of three Israeli settlements: 945 dunams seized for Hashmona'im, 645 dunams for Mattityahu, and 384 dunams for Modi'in Illit.
On 22 March 2020, Sufyan Nawwaf al-Khawaja (age 32) from Ni'lin was killed after being shot in the head by the Israeli army. The Israelis said he was throwing stones, while his family said he was buying supplies before the shut-down imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.