Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Ein Qiniya

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Palestine grid
  
164/148

Name meaning
  
The crimson spring

Governorate
  
Ramallah & al-Bireh

Ein Qiniya

Weather
  
12°C, Wind NW at 8 km/h, 84% Humidity

Ein Qiniya or 'Ayn Kiniya (Arabic: عين قينيا‎‎) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) northwest of Ramallah and is a part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. Ein Qiniya has existed since the Roman-era of rule in Palestine. The village is very small with no public structures or institutions and is governed by a local development committee. Ein Qiniya is regionally notable for being a spring and autumn time picnic resort.

Contents

Map of Ein Kinya

There is an annual walk on March 4 from Ramallah to Ein Qiniyya in celebration of the spring.

History

A Middle Bronze Age tomb was discovered here in 1934. Potsherds from the Hellenistic and Umayyad/Abbasid period have been found.

Ein Qiniya has traditionally been identified with Ainqune of the Crusader era, one of the fiefs given by King Godfrey to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. However, Finkelstein writes that this identification should be reconsidered. Potsherds from the Mamluk era have also been found here.

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Ayn Qinya, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds. The population was 32 households, all Muslim. They paid a tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, vineyards and fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 4760 Akçe.

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Ain Kanieh as "a village of moderate size on a ridge".

British Mandate era

In 1917, most of the village's inhabitants were evacuated by British Mandate troops for suspicion that residents killed a British officer and relocated to Beitunia and Yalo. In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, 'Ain Qinia had a population of 56, all Muslims. This had increased in the 1931 census to 83, still all Muslims, in a total of 26 houses.

In 1945 the population was 100, all Muslims, while the total land area was 2,494 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,276 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 569 for cereals, while 19 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Ein Qiniya came under Jordanian rule.

1967 and after

After the Six-Day War in 1967 Ein Qiniya has been under Israeli occupation.

In 1982 residents numbered 101, then after a mass migration of other Palestinians to the Ein Qiniya, the population rose to 464 in 1984. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2006 it had a population of 807. In the 2007 PCBS census, there were 817 people living in the village.

References

Ein Qiniya Wikipedia