Rantis

During the Crusader era, it was known as Arimathia, Arimatie, Abarimatie, and Rantis.[11] By 1150, the Premonstratensians were represented in Rentis with a house.[11] In 1159-60 a church in the village was mentioned in Crusader sources.[11][12]

In 1187 Rantis was conquered by Saladin, and the Crusaders were never able to return.[11]

Rantis was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 20 households and 2 batchelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 2,500 Akçe.[13] In 1838, Edward Robinson noted it as a village, Rentis, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[14]

The French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in 1870, and found that it had 400 inhabitants, and that it was surrounded by olives and tobacco-plantations.[15]

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Rantis as a village, principally made of adobe, on a slope, surrounded by open ground and a few olives. Water was supplied by cisterns. The SWP assumed the village was "ancient", as rock-cut tombs were found there.[16]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Rantis had a population of 824 inhabitants, all Muslims,[17] increasing in the 1931 census to 954, still all Muslims, in a total of 213 houses.[18]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,280, all Muslims,[19] while the total land area was 30,933 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[20] Of this, 1,299 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 7,341 for cereals,[21] while 30 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[22]

• 
  Rantis 1944 1:20,000
• 
  Rantis 1945 1:250,000

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Rantis came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

A report by Major General Vagn Bennike, Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, to the United Nations Security Council read:

On 28–29 January 1953 Israeli military forces estimated at 120 to 150 men, using 2-inch mortars, 3-inch mortars, P.I.A.T. (projectors, infantry, anti-tank) weapons, bangalore torpedoes (long metal tubes containing an explosive charge), machine-guns, grenades and small arms, crossed the demarcation line and attacked the Arab villages of Falameh and Rantis. At Falameh the mukhtar was killed, seven other villagers were wounded, and three houses were demolished. The attack lasted four and a half hours. Israel was condemned for this act by the Mixed Armistice Commission.[23][24]

In 1961, the population of Rantis was 1,539.[25]

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Rantis has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 897, 27 of whom originated from Israeli territory.[26]

After the 1995 accords, about 12% of the village land was classified as Area B, while the remainder 88% was classified as Area C. According to ARIJ, Israel has confiscated village land to be used for bypass roads for Israeli settlements. The Israeli West Bank barrier will extend for 4 km on Rantis village land, and leave 1,815 dunams (16.6%) of the village land behind the barrier.[27]