In 2017, Jenin had a population of approximately 50,000 people, whilst the Jenin refugee camp had a population of about 10,000, housing Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine War.[1][3] The camp has since become a stronghold of Palestinian militants, and the location of several incidents relating to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Etymology
Jenin has been identified as the place "Gina" or "Ginah" mentioned in the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE, as a town in Canaan.[4] Jenin is commonly identified with the later biblical city of Ein-Ganim,[5][6][7][8] from Hebrew: עֵין גַּנִּים, meaning "the spring of gardens"[9] or "the spring of Ganim",[10] probably referring to the many springs located nearby. The present-day Arabic name is believed to preserve the city's ancient name.[5]
Jenin is identified with a number of important towns mentioned in ancient sources. Throughout history, it was referred to as "Ein Ganim", "Beth Hagan", "Ginah", and "Ginae", along other names.[4][8] Tell Jenin, believed to constitute the original settlement core of the city, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business district.[5][11]
Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian of the 1st-century CE, mentions "Ginae" as being in the great plain, on the northern border of Samaria.[5][16][17] During the Roman period, Ginae was settled exclusively by Samaritans. The people of Galilee were disposed to pass through their city during the annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem.[18] In 51 CE, a Galilean Jew was killed in Ginae by hostile Samaritans while en route to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot. With Roman procuratorCumanus failing to respond, Jewish Zealots led by Elazar the Son of Deinaeus (Ben Dinai) sought vengeance, and several Samaritan villages in Aqrabatene were destroyed.[19][20]
Biblical commentator F. W. Farrar raised the possibility that this Samaritan village, "the first village at which [a traveler taking the road from Galilee to Judea over Mount Tabor] would arrive", was the one which rejected the disciples of Jesus in Luke's Gospel at the point where Jesus and his followers begin his journey towards Jerusalem.[21]
Ceramics dating from the Byzantine era have been found here.[22] There is no mention of Jenin in the reports of the Muslim conquest of the Levant from the Byzantines, which, according to the historian Moshe Sharon, "is not surprising, since it was a small place of minor importance".[23]
In 1255, it was agreed between the Ayyubid sultan in Syria, an-Nasir Yusuf, and the first Mamluk sultan in Egypt, Izz al-Din Aybak, to give the latter all of the lands lying west of the Jordan River, and thus Jenin entered into the possession of the Mamluks.[citation needed] It was one of eleven subdistricts of Mamlakat Safad (Province of Safed).[27] In the late 13th century, Mamluk emirs (commanders) stationed at Jenin were ordered by Sultan Qalawun (r. 1279–1290) "to ride every day with their troops before the fortress of 'Akka, so as to protect the coast and the merchants."[28] As one of the stations of the Mamluk barid (postal route) between the Mamluk capital Cairo and Damascus, it was one of the towns where fires were lit to warn of a Mongol attack.[27] The geographer al-Dimashqi mentioned Jenin around 1300.[29] From the time of Qalawun's son, Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad (r. 1299–1309, 1310–1341), it was a station on the route where ice was transported to Cairo for the sultans' drink houses.[27] The Mamluk historian al-Qalqashandi (d. 1418) described Jenin as "an ancient spacious town which is riding on a shoulder of a nice valley in which there is a river of flowing water" north of Qaqun "on the top end of Marj Bani Amer [Jezreel Valley]".[27] He also noted that it contained the mausoleum of Dihyah al-Kalbi, a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[27]
The Ottomans conquered Mamluk Syria in 1516. Jenin became the administrative center of a nahiya (subdistrict) of the Lajjun Sanjak (Lajjun District).[27] The sanjak was officially called the Iqta (Fief) of Turabay until 1559 when it became officially known as the Lajjun Sanjak.[30] The Turabay dynasty was the ruling house of the Bedouin Banu Haritha tribe, whose members held the governorship of Lajjun from the start of Ottoman rule through 1677.[31] The tax registers from 1548–1549 report that Jenin had a population of eight households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 2,000 akçe. All of the revenue went to a waqf (religious endowment) in the name of the Mamluk sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri (r. 1501–1516).[32] Turabay rule was occasionally interrupted, including in 1564, when a certain Kemal Bey was appointed sanjak-bey (district governor) by the Ottomans.[33] On 15 October 1564 Kemal Bey requested from the beylerbey (provincial governor) of Damascus that the stone caravanserai of Jenin be repaired, garrisoned and serve as the chief headquarters of the Lajjun sanjak-bey in order for Lajjun to prosper and for the road connecting Damascus to Jerusalem and Egypt to become secure. The official response was that the caravanserai be turned into a fortress; the fortress became ruined at some later point and 19th-century residents of Jenin used to claim that certain large rocks strewn in the village were the remnants of the 16th-century fortress.[34]
The Turabays, who remained nomads in the plain between Mount Carmel and Caesarea, made Jenin the administrative headquarters of Lajjun and used the town Izz al-Din Cemetery to bury their dead.[35] A large, domed mausoleum was built for the grave of one of the chiefs and sanjak-beys of the family, Turabay ibn Ali (d. 1601). Known as Qubbat al-Amir Turabay (Dome of the Emir Turabay), it was described in a 1941 report as a ruined structure, and Sharon, writing in 2017, notes that it "does not exist anymore".[36] No other graves of the Turabays in Jenin had survived into the 20th century.[36] During the conflict between Fakhr al-Din of the Ma'n dynasty, who governed the sanjaks of Sidon-Beirut and Safed, and the Turabays, in 1623, Fakhr al-Din captured Jenin and stationed his men there. In 1624 the most prominent Turabay chief and sanjak-bey of Lajjun, Ahmad ibn Turabay, drove out the Ma'nid troops from Jenin and established his personal residence in the town.[37]
In the mid-18th century, Jenin was designated the administrative capital of the combined districts of Lajjun and Ajlun.[38] There are indications that the area comprising Jenin and Nablus remained functionally autonomous under Ottoman rule and that the empire struggled to collect taxes there. During the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt which extended into Syria and Palestine in 1799, a local official from Jenin wrote a poem enumerating and calling upon local Arab leaders to resist Bonaparte, without mentioning the Sultan or the need to protect the Ottoman Empire.[39]
In the late 19th century, some members of the Jarrar family, who formed part of the mallakin (elite land-owning families) in Jenin, cooperated with merchants in Haifa to set up an export enterprise there.[40] During the Ottoman era, Jenin was plagued by local warfare between members of the same clan.[41] The French explorer Guérin visited in 1870.[42] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Jenin as "The capital of the district, the seat of a Caimacam, a town of about 3,000 inhabitants, with a small bazaar. The houses are well built of stone. There are two families of Roman Catholics; the remainder are Moslems. A spring rises east of the town and is conducted to a large masonry reservoir, near the west side, of good squared stonework, with a long stone trough. This reservoir was built by 'And el Hady, Mudir of Acre, in the first half of the century [..], north of the town is the little mosque of 'Ezz ed Din, with a good- sized dome and a minaret."[43]
British Mandate period
View of the rubble in Jenin after a quarter of the town was dynamited by British forces in 1938, as a retaliatory attack after a British official was assassinated
According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Jenin had a population of 2,637 (2,307 Muslims, 212 Hindus, 108 Christians, seven Jews, and three Sikhs).[44] A following census in 1931 showed a slight increase to 2,706 (2,610 Muslims, 103 Christians, two Jews, and one Druze) with another 68 in nearby suburbs (all Muslims).[45] From 1936, Jenin became a center of rebellion against the British Mandatory authorities. By the summer of 1938, residents of the city embarked on "an intensified campaign of murder, intimidation and sabotage" that caused the British administration "grave concern", according to a British report to the League of Nations;[46] the population had further increased to 3,100.[47] The city played an important role in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, prompted by the death of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam in a fire-fight with British colonial police at the nearby town of Ya'bad months prior to the start of the revolt. On 25 August 1938, the day after the British Assistant District Commissioner was assassinated in his Jenin office, a large British force with explosives entered the town. Despite having captured and killed the assassin, British forces ordered the inhabitants to leave, and blew up one quarter of the town as a form of punishment.[48]
In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the city was defended by the Iraqi Army, then captured briefly by the forces from Israel's Carmeli Brigade during the "Ten Days' fighting" following the cancellation of the first cease-fire. Prior to the battle, the city's residents fled temporarily.[50] The offensive was actually a feint designed to draw Arab forces away from the critical Battle for Jerusalem, and gains in that sector were quickly abandoned when Arab reinforcements arrived.
The Jenin refugee camp was founded in 1953 by Jordan to house displaced Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 War. In 2014 the camp had a population of 16,000. For 19 years, the city was under Jordanian control. A war cemetery for Iraqi soldiers and local combatants is located on the outskirts of Jenin.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 14,402 inhabitants in Jenin.[51]
On 14 May 1989, during the early months of the First Intifada. Mohammad Jibrin, aged 45, died in Ramallah Hospital after being beaten by Israeli soldiers in Jenin. Three months later, in response to a question from a member of Knesset Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin wrote that there was no investigation by the Military Police Investigator.[52]
During the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield with the stated aim of dismantling terrorist infrastructure so as to curb suicide bombings and other militant activities. The army encircled and entered six major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, among them Jenin. During the Battle of Jenin (2002) in April 2002, 23 Israeli soldiers and 52 Palestinians, including civilians,[56][57] were killed.[58]Human Rights Watch reported that the refugee camp, which was the major battleground, suffered extensive damage. Witnesses stated unarmed people were shot and denied medical treatment, and as a result died. Human Rights Watch have regarded many killings to be unlawful such as the death of a 57-year-old wheelchair bound man who was shot and run over by a tank despite having attached a white flag on his wheelchair. A 37-year-old man who was paralysed was crushed under the rubble of his house, his family was refused to be allowed to remove his body. A 14-year-old boy was killed as he travelled to purchase groceries during the temporary relief of the curfew that was imposed by the army. Medical staff were shot at (one nurse killed) while trying to reach the wounded even after clearly being in uniform displaying the red crescent symbol.[59] There have also been reports of Israeli soldiers using Palestinians as human shields, one father described how a soldier rested his rifle on his 14-year-old son's shoulder as he shot.[60] Israel denied the entry of rescue teams and journalists into Jenin even after they withdrew. Over the following years, Jenin was subject to extended curfews and targeted killings.
During a gun-battle with Islamic Jihad militants whom Israel says were firing at troops from inside the UN compound, an Israeli military sniper shot and killed a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employee, Iain Hook (54) on November 22, 2002.[61] The sniper reportedly mistook a cellphone in Hook's hands for a gun or grenade.[62]
Downtown Jenin
In the framework of the Valley of Peace initiative, a joint Arab-Israeli project is under way to promote tourism in the Jenin region.[63] In 2010, 600 new businesses opened in Jenin.[64] The Canaan Fair Trade is headquartered in Jenin.[65] Director of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Juliano Mer-Khamis, was killed by masked gunmen in the city in April 2011. Mer-Khamis co-founded the theatre with Zakaria Zubeidi, former military chief of the al-Aqsa Brigades who had renounced violence.[66]
On 6 February 2020, a Palestinian policeman, Tarek Badwan, was shot dead by an Israeli sniper as he stood at the entrance to the Jenin police station and chatted with a colleague. No explanation has been forthcoming. The incident was recorded on video.[67]
On 17 June 2022, Israeli forces conducted a raid in the al-Marah area of the city. During the raid, Israeli forces opened fire on a car, killing three Palestinians and seriously injuring another.[68]
A street in Jenin
On 26 January 2023, Israeli forces killed nine in a clash with Islamic Jihad militants during a raid in the city and refugee camp of Jenin.[69][70]
On 3 July 2023, shortly after 1 a.m., Israeli forces attacked the city's refugee camp using drone-fired missiles and ground troops. Eight Palestinians died from injuries sustained during the attack and a further eighty were injured, nine of them critically.[71][72] Fifty Palestinians, whom Israeli forces labeled "militants," were arrested. Israeli forces cut off telecommunications and electricity in the area and medical professionals struggled to reach the injured. Israel claimed that while they were targeting suspected members of the Jenin Brigades, an armed group.[73] The refugee camp has a population of roughly 17,000 inhabitants and is about a quarter a square mile in size.
On 19 September 2023, four Palestinians were killed during another Israeli military invasion of the city – among them a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, chased and killed for having noticed the Israeli undercover soldiers sneaking into the Jenin refugee camp.[74]
During the 2023 Hamas-Israel war, Israeli forces carried out multiple operations in Jenin. On October 22, the IDF conducted an airstrike targeting an underground compound beneath the Al-Ansar Mosque in the city. It was reported to be the first airstrike in the West Bank since the Second Intifada. The IDF stated that the strike aimed at operatives from Hamas and PIJ who were planning a terror attack.[75]
Geography
Jenin is situated at the foot of the rugged northernmost hills (Jabal Nablus) of the West Bank, and along the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley (Marj Ibn Amer),[76] which the city overlooks.[77] Its highest elevation is about 250 meters above sea level and its lowest areas are 90 meters above sea level.[78] Immediately southwest of Jenin is the Sahl Arraba plain (Dothan Valley), while further south is the Marj Sanur valley.[79] About 1.5 kilometers to Jenin's east is Mount Gilboa (Jabal Faqqua).[80]
Jenin municipality was established in 1886 under the Ottoman rule with no more than 80 voters and elections were made every 4 years until 1982 when the Israeli government took control over the municipality until 1995. [citation needed]
Municipal elections were held in Jenin on 15 December 2005. Six seats each were won by Hamas and the local coalition of Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Jenin was one of several Palestinian cities where Hamas showed a dramatic growth in electoral support.
[83] Doctor Hadem Rida was then elected as Mayor of the city, until he was arrested by the Israel Forces and spent 3 years in jail. After his release, he resigned from the position and went back to practice in his clinic in Jenin city.
Demographics
Palestinian children in Jenin
According to the 2017 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Jenin had a population of 49,908,[1] the Jenin Refugee Camp of 10,417[1] on 373 dunams (92 acres). Some 42.3% of the population of the camp was under the age of 15.
The Horse of Jenin is a famous monument built in 2003 by German artist Thomas Kilpper and young people from Jenin of scrap metal from cars destroyed by Israeli forces.[92]
The city has a monument honoring German pilots shot down in Jenin during the First World War, which incorporates an original wooden propeller.[93]
An old British Mandate landing strip, Muqeible Airfield, is located in Jenin.
Cinema Jenin is the largest movie theater in the area. The cinema, which reopened in 2010 after a 23-year intermission, has indoor and outdoor screens, a film library and educational facilities.[95]
Strings of Freedom is an orchestra in Jenin founded by an Arab citizen of Israel, Wafaa Younis, who travels form her home in central Israel to teach music to the local youth.[96]
^ abcdefZertal, Adam (2016). The Manasseh Hill Country Survey: From Nahal 'Iron to Nahal Shechem. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill. ISBN978-90-04-13756-1. OCLC54694679. Jenin is well identified with a number of important sites: in the el-Amarna letters "The Land of Ginah" is mentioned (EA 250), which is probably the E7 of the 'Execration Texts' (Posener's group); in the Bible there is 'Ein Ganim' (see Kallai's opinion in EB VI: 207–208) and Beth Hagan (I Kgs 9: 27); in the Book of Judith, it appears as Ginei (Jdt 3: 11) and Ginae of the Roman period appears in Josephus (Ant. XX, vi, 1; War III, iii, 4); in the Moslem and the Crusader sources it appears under many names: Geninum, Le Grand Gerin, Major Gallina, Gerinum Magnum. These identifications refer to the tell and/or the settlement of Jenin
^ abcdeTasneem Ghalib Khader Atatrah (2010). "Assessment of Traditional Home Practices Carried by Palestinian Mothers During the Neonatal Period in Jenin District". Deanship of Graduated Studies, Al-Quds University. Etymology: Jenin was known in ancient times as the Canaanite village of "Ein-Ganim" or Tel Jenin. Tel Jenin, its name in Arabic, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business center. The city of Ein-Ganim is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the city of the Levites of the Tribe of Issachar. After some years, the city's name was changed to "Giant". In the book of Judith, the settlement is mentioned as "Gini". The Jewish historian Josephus also mentioned Ganim as a city in northern Samaria. The Arabic name "Jenin" ultimately derives from this ancient name.
^Kmail, A., Jubran, J., Sabbah, W., & Jenin, P. (2017). "Coupling GIS-based MCA and AHP techniques for Hospital Site Selection"(PDF). International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security (IJCSIS). 15 (12). The name of Jenin was derived from Ein Ganim meaning "the spring of Ganim" and referring to the region's plentiful spring.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Josephus Flavius. "Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 3:4-5". Fordham.edu. Archived from the original on 2023-04-29. Retrieved 2012-12-31 – via Ancient History Sourcebook: Josephus (37 – after 93 CE): Galilee, Samaria, and Judea in the First Century CE. Now as to the country of Samaria, it lies between Judea and Galilee; it begins at a village that is in the great plain called Ginea, and ends at the Acrabbene toparchy, and is entirely of the same nature with Judea
^Josephus, the Jewish War, II.232-236; Antiquities XX:118-122
^אילן, טל (2017). נעם, ורד; אילן, טל (eds.). בין יוספוס לחז"ל: כרך א' - האגדות האבודות של ימי הבית השני [Josephus and the Rabbis - Volume I: The Lost Tales of the Second Temple Period] (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: יד יצחק בן-צבי. pp. 521–525. ISBN978-965-217-403-1.
^Boas, Adrian (2006). Archaeology of the Military Orders: A Survey of the Urban Centres, Rural Settlements and Castles of the Military Orders in the Latin East (c.1120-1291). Routledge. ISBN978-1-134-42284-5.
^ abGovernment of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 8Archived 2018-01-20 at the Wayback Machine
^Talmor, Ronny (translated by Ralph Mandel) (1990) The Use of Firearms - By the Security Forces in the Occupied Territories.B'Tselem. download pp.76,78
Chatty, D. (2006). Nomadic societies in the Middle East and North Africa: entering the 21st century (Illustrated ed.). Brill Publishers. ISBN978-90-04-14792-8.
Negev, Avraham; Gibson, Shimon (2005). Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land (4th, revised, illustrated ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN978-0-8264-8571-7.
Yazbak, M. (1998). Haifa in the late Ottoman period, 1864-1914: a Muslim town in transition (Illustrated ed.). Brill Publishers. ISBN978-90-04-11051-9.
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