in 1922, the people of al-bassa founded a local council which was responsible for managing its local affairs. the british census of september 1922 listed a population of 867 christians, 150 metawalis and 1 jew, though kaufman reports that the muslims were sunni rather than metawali. the christians were listed as greek catholic (melchite) (721), orthodox (120), church of england (17), armenian catholic (8), and one roman catholic. its main economic activity was olive picking. at the 1931 census, which did not distinguish metawalis from other muslims, the village had 868 muslims, 1076 christians, and 4 bahais.