Jenin

For the Polish village, see Jenin, Poland.

Template:Infobox Palestinian Authority municipality Jenin (Arabic: ; Hebrew: ג'נין), is a Palestinian city located in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 120,000 while the adjacent refugee camp (also named Jenin) had a population of over 20,300. Jenin is designated under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.

Geography

Jenin overlooks both the Jordan Valley to the east and the Jezreel Valley (known by Palestinians as "Marj Ibn Amer") to the north.

Etymology

Jenin was known in ancient times as the Canaanite village of "Ein-Ganim" or "Tel Jenin". Tell Jenin, its name in Arabic, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business district.

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 "Ginat". In the book of Yehudit, 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. The origin of the place as Ein-Ganim was recognized by Ishtori Haparchi. In the 20th century CE, the Israel built a nearby Israeli settlement, Ganim, also named after the ancient village. This settlement was evacuated in August 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan.

History

Jenin In 1937

The nearby tell of Khirbet Belameh, identified as ancient Ibleam, is located a little over a mile to the south of Jenin, and shows signs of habitation ranging from the Early Bronze Age to the medieval period.

Four terracotta lamps of Phoenician origin dated to the 8th century BCE were discovered in Ain Jenin by archaeologist G. I. Harding, and are interpreted as attesting to some form of contact and exchange between the residents of Jenin at that time and those of Phoenicia.

In the late 13th century, Mamluk emirs stationed at Jenin were ordered by Qalawun, the sultan, "to ride every day with their troops before the fortress of 'Akka, so as to protect the coast and the merchants."

During the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine (1517-1918), Jenin, Lajjun and the Carmel area, were for part of the 17th century ruled by Bedouin sheikhs, in this case the Turabay family. In the mid-18th century, Jenin was designated the administrative capital of a district that included Lajjun, Ajlun and Jabal Nablus. 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. 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. Tawfiq Jarrar was accorded the unique title, "son of the great" (salil al-akabir) in Haifa, in recognition of his family's status and his entrepenurial efforts.

Jenin was a center of civil unrest during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine which was 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. Jenin was used by Fawzi al-Qawuqji's Arab Liberation Army as a base. On August 25, 1938, the day after the British Assistant District Commissioner was assassinated in his Jenin office, a large British force with explosives entered the town. After ordering the inhabitants to leave, about one quarter of the town was blown up.

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. The offensive was actually a feint designed to draw Arab forces away from the critical Siege of Jerusalem, and gains in that sector were quickly abandoned when Arab reinforcements arrived. The southern entrance of Jenin holds a cemetery for the dead of the Iraqi army and some Palestinians who fought with them against the Israeli forces.

The Jenin refugee camp was founded in 1953 to house Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their native villages and towns in the areas that became Israeli territory during the 1948 War. For 19 years, the city was under Jordanian control; it was then captured by the Peled division of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the first day of the Six-Day War in 1967.

Palestinian control

See also: Battle of Jenin

The city was handed over by Israel to the control of the Palestinian National Authority in 1996. At the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, Israel alleged that the city had become a central source for the dispatching of suicide bombers to the north and center of Israel. According to Israeli sources, a quarter of all suicide bombings carried out in Israel during the current intifada originated in Jenin.

Following the battle, Jenin fell under the control of the Israeli military. In that time, residents of Jenin have been subject to extended curfews (over 150 days since June 2002, nearly all prior to 2004. Several Palestinian militants and nearby civilians have been killed by the IDF on targeted killings. During the battle, 56 Palestinians were killed, the majority of them combatants, along with 23 Israeli soldiers. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employee Iain Hook was also killed by Israeli troops on November 22, 2002.

Demographics

According to projections based on a 1997 census, the city of Jenin has a population of 120,000 Palestinians. The Jenin refugee camp housed approximately 20,000 refugees, according to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) on 373 dunams (92 acres). Some 42.3% of the population of the camp is under the age of fifteen.

Features

One of the city's quarters is an official United Nations refugee camp housing mostly the descendants of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It has long been a center of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The city includes the Martyr Doctor Khalil Suleiman Hospital. The city also includes a monument for German pilots whose planes were shot down in Jenin during the First World War and the monument holds an original propeller made of wood Recently, the city's only movie theater, Cinema Jenin, is being rehabilitated. The city also has a stadium which can hold more than 3000 spectators. The Arab American University is located in Jenin.

Government

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.

List of Jenin mayors:

• Andulmajeed Mansour
• Abdulrahman Al-Haj Hassan
• Ragheb Al-Souki
• Al-Haj Hassan Fazaa'
• Tawfeek Mansour
• Bshara Atallah
• Hussein al-Abboushi
• Aref Abdulrahman
• Fahmi al-Abboushi

• Tahseen Abdulhadi
• Abdulraheem Jarrar
• Saleh Arif Azzouqa
• Hussni Al-Souki
• Ahmed Kamal Al-saa'di
• Ahmed Shawki Al-Mahmoud
• Shehab Al-Sanouri
• Abdullah Lahlouh
• Waleed Abu Mwais (appointed)

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. The mayor of Jenin is Hadem Rida.

See also

• Jenin Youth Orchestra

Bibliography

• Ayalon, David; Sharon, Moshe (1986). Studies in Islamic history and civilization: in honour of Professor David Ayalon (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 965264014X, 9789652640147. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Chatty, Dawn (2006). Nomadic societies in the Middle East and North Africa: entering the 21st century (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 9004147926, 9789004147928. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Doumani, Beshara (1995). Rediscovering Palestine: merchants and peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (Illustrated ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 0520203704, 9780520203709. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Hadidi, Adnan (1995). Studies in the history and archaeology of Jordan, Volume 3 (Illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0710213727, 9780710213723. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Kohl, Philip L.; Kozelsky, Mara; Ben-Yehuda, Nachman (2007). Selective remembrances: archaeology in the construction, commemoration, and consecration of national pasts (Illustrated ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226450597, 9780226450599. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Negev, Avraham; Gibson, Shimon (2005). Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land (4th, revised, illustrated ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0826485715, 9780826485717. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Quataert, Donald (2005). The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (2nd, illustrated, revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521839106, 9780521839105. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Yazbak, Maḥmūd (1998). Haifa in the late Ottoman period, 1864-1914: a Muslim town in transition (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 9004110518, 9789004110519. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

External links

• Unofficial page (in Arabic)
• Who Lives In Jenin Refugee Camp?: A Brief Statistical Profile
• A project aimed at reopening a movie theater for the residents of Jenin and the refugee camp.
• Peace and Prosperity in the West Bank in-depth report on NOW on PBS
• Heart of Jenin documentary on PBS WIDE ANGLE
• Tower Hamlets-Jenin Friendship Association (website)
• Tower Hamlets-Jenin Friendship Association (photos)