Deir al-Hatab is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located east of Nablus, near the neighbouring villages of Salem and Azmout. The village land extends over 12,000 dunams, of which 330 are built-up. The Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh is established within Deir al-Hatab's jurisdiction, taking up nearly 2,000 dunams of the village's land. In June, 2016, Deir al-Hatab and other towns and villages in the area had to go without running water for weeks, as the Israeli Mekorot reduced the amount of water it sold to the Palestinians.
In 1838, in the Ottoman era, Edward Robinson noted Deir al-Hatab as a village in the same area as the villages Azmut and Salim, all Muslim villages that were part of the El-Beitawy district, east of Nablus. When Victor Guérin visited in 1870, he found that Deir al-Hatab had at most 100 inhabitants. He further noted that the many dilapidated houses showed that the village had formerly been more important. The ancient cisterns dug into the rock were dry, so the women fetched water at A'ïn Salem. In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as a "small village, with olives and a well to the south, standing on a hill slope."
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Deir al-Hatab had a population of 234, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 277, still all Muslim, in total of 51 houses. In the 1945 statistics, Deir el Hatab had a population of 370, all Muslims, with 11,532 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 679 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,172 used for cereals, while 33 dunams were built-up land.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Deir al-Hatab has been under Israeli occupation. The population of Deir el Hatab in the 1967 census conducted by Israel was 543, of whom 4 originated from Israeli territory. In 1987, 1,120 people were living in Deir al-Hatab. After the 1995 accords, 42% of village land was classified as Area B, while the remaining 58% was classified as Area C. Since the Israeli occupation, the Israelis have confiscated 659 dunams of the village's land for the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Deir al-Hatab had a population of over 2,213 inhabitants in 2007. Around 33% of households in the village have 1-5 members, 51% have 6-10 members and 17% have over 10 members. About 10% of the population over ten yearsof age is illiterate, women making up 78% of this statistic. In addition, 43% of the student population are females. Agriculture forms 24% of Deir al-Hatab's economy while small business, work in the government and construction form the remainder. Over half of the population is of working age and women made-up half of the labor force in 1999. Deir al-Hatab's village council claims unemployment has dramatically increased from 30% in 1999 to 90% in 2001. Because Elon Moreh and its outposts overlooks and is in proximity to half of the land, Palestinian farmers have in the last decade been allowed only a few days each year to tend their fields, after coordinating with the Israeli occupation army. From 2002 to 2007 the IDF banned the villagers from working their land, and settlers began to plant new olive trees and grapevines on private lots. A 'disruptive use' injunction was issued in January 2007 by Major General Yair Naveh, allowing Palestinian authorities to remove settlers who had engaged in illegal cultivation of local lands in the preceding 3 years. The ordinance has not deterred settler appropriation of Deir al-Hatab's land, according to Amira Hass, and injunctions are often not implemented. In 2007, Israeli settlers from Elon Moreh put a plastic swimming pool by the spring which supplies Deir al-Hatab with 40% of its drinking water. They diverted the water from the spring to their pool. The contaminated waste water from this swimming pool then reentered into the drinking water of Deir al-Hatab.
