Writing in the middle of the 20th century, Palestinian eduator Mustafa al-Dabbagh derived the name from the Assyrian "Han-nina", which he interpreted as meaning "the one who deserves pity" (hanan).

[12][13] In 636, Beit Hanina was annexed by the Islamic Caliphate led by Umar Ibn al-Khattab as a result of a decisive Muslim victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmouk.

[14] In 1099, Crusader armies captured Jerusalem, including Beit Hanina, inflicting heavy casualties on the Muslim population and causing most of the residents to flee.

To ensure a Muslim majority and protect it from a renewed Crusader invasion, Salah ad-Din brought powerful Bedouin tribes from the Negev desert and the northern Hejaz to settle in the area.

It had a population of 28 Muslim households, who paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, vineyards/fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 10,300 akçe.

[24] In a tradition recorded by Ben-Zvi in 1927, the Dar Abu-Zharir family of Beit Hanina claimed Jewish descent.

The descendants openly acknowledged their Jewish roots, stating "Asalna min al-Yahud" (Arabic: أصلنا من اليهود, lit.

Elderly women in the family reportedly taught the younger generations the laws of female purity, and many members bore Jewish-sounding names like Sarah and Rebecca.

Under Jordanian rule, new roads and schools were built, and many of the town's émigrés invested in the development of a modern suburb, then known as Ras al-Tariq, located to the east along the Jerusalem-Ramallah highway.

[14] In the post-1967 era, according to Ibrahim Mattar, "The first objective of the Israeli planners in drawing these new boundaries was to maximize the land area and minimize the Palestinian population to be included in greater East Jerusalem.

On 18 April 2012, a Palestinian family, the Natshehs, was evicted from two houses in the wake of an Israeli court decision that the land was owned by Jews.

The Israel Land Fund had purchased the buildings in 1977 as part of a plan for a Jewish neighborhood of 50 apartments called "Nof Shmuel.

[37] The European Union condemned the eviction, and said they were very concerned by the plans to build a new settlement "in the midst of this traditional Palestinian neighborhood.

Nasreen Kadari, winner of the TV reality show Eyal Golan is Calling You, sang one of the Egyptian singer's famous songs, "Enta Omri", at the ceremony.

According to Al-Quds, Kerry demanded Abbas to officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state and offered that Beit Hanina neighborhood will be declared as the Palestinian capital instead of the entire east Jerusalem area.

In the 1990s a new route was built to the east of the neighbourhood, a dual carriageway with 3 lanes in each direction, relieving traffic congestion along the road.

[52] In 2010, Akiva Eldar reported in Haaretz that the-then Palestinian Authority prime minister, Salam Fayyad, lived in Beit Hanina.

Early in the morning his black Mercedes left the well-guarded villa in the Beit Hanina neighborhood on Jerusalem's northern outskirts.

Chenoweth states,"Already Israel and Palestine have very low water resources availability compared to the global average (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2004).

In the case of Palestine, this water scarcity directly impacts upon daily life and economic activity for much of the population.