Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and it appeared in the 1596 tax-records as Zayta Bani 'Amir, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. The population was 26 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives and a press for olive oil or grape syrup, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 10,114 akçe.^[7] Sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found here.^[4]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Zeita formed part of the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn, from which it derived the second part of its name. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the Jerusalem and the Nablus regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the Bedouin tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities.”^[8]

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted it as a village, Zeita, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.^[9]

In 1870 Victor Guérin noted it, situated on a hill lower than that of Jamma'in. It was also surrounded by plantations of olive and fig trees, and contained eight hundred inhabitants.^[10]

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.^[11]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Zeita as: "a small stone village, on high ground, with a well to the west, and olive groves."^[12]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Zeita had a population of 283 Muslims,^[13] increasing in the 1931 census to 404 Muslims and 1 Christian, in 113 houses.^[14]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 510 Muslims,^[15] while the total land area was 12,887 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.^[16] Of this, 2,429 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 4,277 for cereals,^[17] while 43 dunams were classified as built-up areas.^[18]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Zeita Jamma'in came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 708 inhabitants.^[19]

Post 1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Zeita Jamma'in has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords 99.7 % of village land is declared to be Area B land, while 0.3 % is Area C.^[20]