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Jenin
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Jenin (Arabic: ; ), a city in the West Bank. Jenin serves as the administrative centre of the Jenin Governorate and is a major Palestinian agricultural center.
Jenin also refers to the adjoining Jenin Refugee Camp and is the name of the surrounding district within the West Bank. The area is designated to be under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. Due to its role in the mobilization of terrorists, the Israel Defense Force invaded the city during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and has entered the area several times since.
overlooks both the Jordan Valley to the east and the Marj Ibn Amer (Jezreel Valley) to the north.
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Encyclopedia
Jenin (Arabic: ; ), a city in the West Bank. Jenin serves as the administrative centre of the Jenin Governorate and is a major Palestinian agricultural center.
Jenin also refers to the adjoining Jenin Refugee Camp and is the name of the surrounding district within the West Bank. The area is designated to be under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. Due to its role in the mobilization of terrorists, the Israel Defense Force invaded the city during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and has entered the area several times since.
Geography
The overlooks both the Jordan Valley to the east and the Marj Ibn Amer (Jezreel Valley) to the north. Jenin is thought to be the site of the Israelite village of En-Gannim, mentioned in the Bible (See also: Anem).
History
Jenin was known in ancient times as the Canaanite village of Ein-Ganeem or Tel Jenin. The city of Ein-Ganeem 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 book of Yehudit the settlement is mentioned as Gini. The Jewish historian Josephus also mentioned Ganim as a city in northern Samaria. The modern Arabic name Jenin ultimately derives from this ancient name. The origin of the place as Ein-Ganeem was recognised by Ishtori Haparchi. In the 20th century C.E., the State of 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. Another Israeli community was also given the name of Ein Ganim, today part of Petah Tikva.
Jenin was a center of civil unrest during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine which was prompted by the death of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam in a fire-fight with British colonial police, for whom a Hamas military wing was since named. It was also used by Fawzi al-Qawuqji's partisans. On August 25, 1938, the 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 Iraqi forces, then captured briefly by forces of Israeli Karmeli Brigade during the "10 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 the Israeli territory during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
For 19 years, the city was under Jordanian control; it was then captured by the Peled division of the IDF on the first day of the Six-Day War of 1967.
Conflict years
The city was handed over by Israel to the control of the Palestinian Authority in 1996. At the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada, 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, second Intifada originated in Jenin. See Palestinian political violence for an in-depth discussion of this broader issue.
Battle of 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 Israel Defense Forces on targeted killings. 56 Palestinians were killed, the majority combatants, and 23 Israelis. 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 35,000 Palestinians. The Jenin refugee camp housed approximately 12,000 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.
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
External links
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