Nablus

Nablus (sometimes Nābulus; Arabic: نابلس^ⓘ; IPA: [næːblʊs], Hebrew: שכם^ⓘ Shechem ; IPA: [ʃxɛm]); 32°13′N 35°16′E / 32.217°N 35.267°E / 32.217; 35.267) is a major city under Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and, with a population of over 100,000, is one of the largest Palestinian population centers in the Middle East.[1] The city lies 63 km north of Jerusalem, between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Ancient Shechem is located in the eastern part of the modern city, in a site known as Tal Balatah. An ancient city with a rich history, Nablus is a site of religious significance to the three major Abrahamic faiths, as well as Samaritanism, and is also a scene of political instability related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Geography

Nablus lies in a strategic position at a junction between two ancient commercial roads; one linking the Israeli coast to the Jordan valley, the other linking Nablus to the Galilee in the north, and the Negev to the south through the mountains. The entire Nablus district is 605 square kilometers, while Nablus city is 28.5 square kilometers. Nablus is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The length of the mountain chain is about 65 km from north to south. Its width is about 55 km from west to east. Ebal, the northern mountain, is the highest peak in this chain at 940 meters, while Gerizim, the southern mountain, is 881 meters high. The city lies along the narrow and fertile valley between the two mountains.

Demographics

The Nablus district has 205,392 inhabitants, including refugee camps and surrounding villages. The estimated population of the city is 104,596, with a majority of Muslim and a minority of Christian Palestinian Arabs, as well as a small Samaritan community. The population of Nablus city comprises 34% of the district. The entire district contains 14 Israeli settlements, with a total population of 10,000 and two of the largest Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Askar and Balata, which compromise about 8% of the total district population.

History

Shechem

The ancient city of Shechem dates back an estimated four thousand years.

At Shechem, Abram "built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him . . . and had given that land to his descendants" (Gen 12:6-7). This Biblical account, considered by some to be the first place Abram stopped when Abraham, Sarah, Lot, and their party entered Canaan. The Bible states that on this occasion, God confirmed the covenant He had first made with Abraham in Harran, regarding the possession of the land of Canaan. Joshua assembled the Israelites in Shechem and encouraged them to reaffirm their adherence to the Torah. During the Judges period, Abimelech was crowned king in Shechem.

Shechem was a commercial center due to its position in the middle of vital trade routes through the region. It traded in local grapes, olives, wheat, livestock, and pottery between the middle Bronze Age and the late Hellenic Period (1900-100 BCE). Archeological evidence indicates that the city was razed and reconstructed up to 22 times before its final demise in 200 CE. Within the remains of the city can still be found a number of walls and gates built for defense, a government house, a residential quarter and the ruins of a temple raised to Zeus by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, the latter dating to 200 CE.

Shechem was the first capital of the Israelites. The archaeological site of Shechem was discovered in 1903 by a German party of archaeologists led by Dr. Hermann Thiersch at a site known as Tell Balatah, beside the traditional site associated with the tomb of Joseph.

Flavia Neapolis

Flavia Neapolis ("new city of the emperor Flavius") was founded in the year 72 by the emperor Vespasian 2 km west of the site of the Biblical city of Shechem. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the emperor Zeno built a church on the summit of Mount Gerizim in response to a revolt, but the church (called Maria Theotokos) was destroyed after the Arab conquest of the city in 636. The city became Nablus, the Arabic pronunciation of Neapolis. The name Neapolis, Greek for "new city", suggests that the original founders were Greek Hellenes, who preceded the Romans in the area. The city was occupied by Crusaders in 1099 under the command of Tancred who called it Naples. The Crusaders built a number of churches, and with its fortified citadel, the city was a major center of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, but their reign came to an end in 1187 when they were expelled by Saladin. During Ottoman rule, Nablus was the first capital of one of four districts in the Syria-Palestine province.

After World War I, Palestine became a British Mandate, and Nablus became a point of resistance against the British. Also, an earthquake in 1927 damaged many of the city's buildings, which were subsequently rebuilt but lost their previous picturesque character. The city came under Jordanian occupation following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and was later captured by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

Religious roots

The city has a long biblical history, and has major significance in Judaism, and is important to Christianity and Islam. Besides Abraham's ties to the area, the city contains religious sites such as Joseph's Tomb, Jacob's Well, the site of Dinah's rape, location of the Middle Bronze Gate, where the Israelites rejected Rehoboam and also the location of the destroyed Samaritan temple. Near a Greek Orthodox monastery there is a well associated with that of the Biblical figure Jacob.

In the New Testament, this is the well at which Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. A site nearby is considered by Jews to be the Joseph's Tomb. The site has seen much friction between Israelis and Palestinians. During the Oslo period, from 1980 to 2000 the Israeli army maintained an armed guard at the Tomb of Joseph compound to protect worshipers.

In a move that embittered Jews and embarrassed the Palestinians, at the beginning of the second Intifada, Joseph's Tomb was damaged by Palestinian rioters, and one Israeli soldier, a Druze, was killed. The Palestinian leadership promised to rebuild the site, although it is not clear if the proposed replacement structure is a mosque. Mount Gerizim in Nablus is holy to the Samaritan community, who remember it as the site of their ancient temple. The site remains in Palestinian hands.

Features

Nablus is the site of An-Najah National University, the largest Palestinian university. It is also the location of the Palestine Stock Exchange and leading information and communication technology organizations such as Palestine Telecommunication Company and AMRA Information Technology. Nablus is an agricultural and commercial trade center dealing in traditional industries such as production of soap, olive oil, and handicrafts. Other industries include furniture production, tile production, stone quarrying, textile manufacturing and leather tanning. The city is also a regional trading center for live produce. There are three refugee camps just outside the city, which were built for the Palestinian refugees of 1948. These camps are Ein Beit el Ma, Balata and Askar al Qadim and Askar al Jadid. Together they have more than 34,000 inhabitants.

Nablus is famous for the architecture of its market, the casbah in the old city, and also for the Palestinian culinary specialty of knafeh, a pastry dessert drenched in syrup and served in square-cut slices fresh from the oven. Knafeh made in Nablus is known throughout the world as "Knafeh Nabulsia".

Nablus and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

On July 2 1980 Bassam Shaka, then mayor of Nablus, became the victim of a bomb placed in his car by militants affiliated with the Israeli Gush Emunim movement; he survived although both his legs were amputated. [2]

The city's unemployment rates have increased dramatically in recent years, rising from 14.2% in 1997 to an estimate of 60% in 2004. It is estimated that the unemployment in the old city and in the refugee camps is as high as 80%. Due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the city was closed off by the IDF. The city's encirclement with checkpoints is cited by the United Nations as a reason for high unemployment and a "devastated" economy[3]; other sources cite mismanagement by the Palestinian Authority as a contribution to the poor state of the economy.[4] Israeli checkpoints around Nablus restrict traveling of residents to and from the city (and there is a ban on vehicles, only pedestrians can cross checkpoints). Around 400 Palestinians (including armed fighters as well as unarmed civilians and children) from Nāblus have been killed by IDF military operations against militants during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Israeli soldiers along with Jewish settlers have also been killed by members of militant groups that originate from there.[5][6][7][8]. In March 2002, after a suicide bombing in Kibbutz Metzer in which five Israelis were killed, the IDF launched a military operation focused on the casbah in the city center and on the nearby Balata refugee camp, where many residents are members of Hamas and Fatah, in a repeat of a similar operation in 2001. The IDF took control of the city and imposed a month-long curfew, arresting at least ten Palestinians suspected of involvement in militant activities. In April, following the Passover massacre, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield, in which Nablus was one of the cities targeted in a massive military operation. At least 25 Palestinians, both militants and civilians, were killed in the Nāblus area during that month.[9] IDF withdrawal from Nāblus is still pending negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli allegations regarding Nāblus

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli NGO, alleged in 2002 that Nablus was "the infrastructure center of Palestinian terrorists". The organization stated that "Nablus constitutes the main infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism and the location of the main headquarters of the terrorist organizations leaderships in the West Bank." The report continues that "hundreds of gunmen in the city" belong to militant organizations such as "Hamas, PFLP, DFLP, PDA, the PFLPGC/ Jibril Front and the "People's HQ" (former Communists)." The list of charges by this NGO against Nablus included:

Most of the explosive charges and explosive belts used for the Hamas suicide bombings in Israel, including the attack in Haifa (December 2001, 15 Israelis killed) and the Passover massacre in Netanya (27 March, 2002, 30 Israelis killed, 140 injured) were produced in Nablus.
The Hamas activists in Nablus who constitute in practice the organization's leadership in the West Bank, masterminded and directed from the city areas which served as its main headquarters, most of the attacks which the movement carried out in Israel and in the West Bank since the outbreak of the current confrontation with the Palestinians, e.g. Emmanuel (December 2001, 11 Israelis killed, and 27 wounded), Hamra in the Jordan Valley (February 2002, 3 Israelis killed), Elon Moreh (28 March, 2002, 4 Israelis killed).
Nablus constituted the center of knowhow for the production and operation of the rockets in the West Bank.

[10]

Palestinians reject "dehumanization through political language" such as claiming all acts of "resistance" as "terror", and claim that Israel blames the victim [11][12]. As Palestinians regard themselves as under Israeli military occupation, they often cite the United Nations charter that recognizes the right of all peoples to self-determination and what Palestinians see as a right to resist foreign occupation. [13][14][15]. Palestinian and foreign NGOs often counter Israeli accusations with statements that it is Israel that is involved in aggression and is in violation of UN resolutions and international law. Representatives of some of these organization have reported directly from Nablus.[16][17]

Inner city conflict

Since late July 2003, Nablus has also been afflicted by armed gang war, waged by Palestinian militias, local bandits, and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a paramilitary organization linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah which has also carried out suicide bombings. Arafat appointed a mayor, Ghassan Shakaa, and a governor, Mahmoud Aloul. Following the assassination of his brother by al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, Shakaa published an open letter via the press - in which he called for the Palestinian Authority to restore order in the torn city. Taysir Naserallah, a leading representative of Fatah in Nablus, said that the repeated Israeli military presence in the city, compounded by months of curfews and economic collapse, had brought about the chaos.

In February 2004 Shakaa filed his resignation from office, after the Palestinian Authority (PA) did nothing to stop the armed militias of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades from rampaging through the city and attacking its residents. Shakaa avoided directly blaming Arafat, but hinted that the PA was the one to blame for the chaos and anarchy ravaging the city of Nablus. In his resignation letter he wrote:

"I see my city collapsing and I don't want to stand idly by and watch this collapse... My resignation is a warning bell to the Palestinian Authority and the residents of Nablus, because both of them are doing nothing for this city." [18].

On April 1, 2004 Dr. Hussein Al-Araj became acting mayor.

Politics

Municipal elections in Nablus and elsewhere occurred in May 2005 and again in December 2005. Hamas won the December 15, 2005 Nablus Municipal Elections . The Reform and Change list representing the Hamas faction won 73,4% of total voters to gain 13 seats of total 15 seats in the city council. The final vote count showed a total vote of 33,761 people, which is 69.3% of eligible voters. The Reform and Change list (Hamas) gained 24,787 votes (73.4%) thirteen seats, Palestine Tomorrow (Fateh) gained 4290 votes (12.7%) two seats, Pledge to Nablus (Independents & Fateh) 2166 votes, The Future (PPP, DFLP, Fida, independents) 1140 votes, Nablus: Faithfulness and Development (independents) 1386 votes. None of later three lists were not able to gain a seat in the municipal council. Nablus was one of several Palestinian cities where Hamas showed a dramatic growth in electoral support. [19]

The Mayor of Nablus is Adly Yaish and the Governor of the Nablus Governorate is Kamal Alsheikh.

Twinning

Nablus has several sister cities. They are:

People from Nablus

Hatem Bazian, academic
Fadwa Toukan, poet
Ibrahim Toukan]], poet
List of mayors of Nablus

External links

Template:Cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip