Jenin

Etymology

Jenin was known in ancient times as the village of "Ein-Jenin" or "Tel Jenin". Tell Jenin, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business district. The word "'ayn" means "water spring" in Arabic and Hebrew, and the word "Jenin" might be related to the Hebrew word גַּן‎ ("gan") and the Arabic word جنّة (janna), both of which mean "garden". The Arabicized name "Jenin" ultimately derives from this ancient name. The association of Jenin with the biblical city of Ein-Ganim was recognized by Ishtori Haparchi.

History

Jenin has been identified as the place Gina mentioned in the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE.

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. During the Roman era, Jenin was called "Ginae," and was settled exclusively by Samaritans (Heb. כותים). The people of Galilee were disposed to pass through their city during the annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

Mamluk era

Dimashki, writing around year 1300, said that after the rise of "Turk power", the empire was divided into nine (sub-) "Kingdoms", or Mamlakat. Jenin was listed as one of the places belonging to the (sub-) Kingdom centred at Safad.

Yaqut described Jenin as "a small and beautiful town, lying between Nabulus and Baisan, in the Jordan Province. There is much water, and many springs are found here, and often have I visited it."

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."

Ottoman era

During Ottoman rule in Palestine (1517-1918), Jenin, Lajjun and the Carmel area, were for part of the 17th century ruled by the Bedouin Turabay family. In the mid-18th century, Jenin was designated the administrative capital of the combined districts of Lajjun and Ajlun. 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. During the Ottoman era, Jenin was plagued by local warfare between members of the same clan. The French explorer Guérin visited in 1870. In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund'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."

British Mandate period

According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Jenin had a population of 2,637, consisting of 2,307 Muslims, 7 Jews, 108 Christians, 212 Hindus and 3 Sikhs. 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. 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. After ordering the inhabitants to leave, about one quarter of the town was blown up.

Jenin was used by Fawzi al-Qawuqji's Arab Liberation Army as a base.

Jordanian control

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 Jenin refugee camp was founded in 1953 by Jordan to house displaced Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 War. 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.

Contemporary period

In 1967, on the first day of the Six-Day War, Jenin was captured by the Israel Defense Forces.

In 1996, Israel handed over control of the city to the Palestinian National Authority in keeping with the Oslo Accords. Known to Palestinians as "the martyrs' capital", the camp's militants, some 200 armed men, included members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Tanzim, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas. By Israel's count, at least 28 suicide bombers were dispatched from the Jenin camp from 2000–2003 during the Second Intifada. Israeli army weekly Bamahane attributes at least 31 militant attacks, totaling 124 victims, to Jenin during the same period, more than any other city in the West Bank.

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 in April 2002, 23 Israeli soldiers and 52 Palestinians, including civilians , were killed. 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, 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. 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. 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. The sniper reportedly mistook a cellphone in Hook's hands for a gun or grenade.

In the framework of the Valley of Peace initiative, a joint Arab-Israeli project is under way to promote tourism in the Jenin region. In 2010, 600 new businesses opened in Jenin. The Canaan Fair Trade is headquartered in Jenin. Director of the Freedom Theater 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.

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), which the city overlooks. Its highest elevation is about 250 meters above sea level and its lowest areas are 90 meters above sea level. Immediately southwest of Jenin is the Sahl Arraba plain (Dothan Valley), while further south is the Marj Sanur valley. About 1.5 kilometers to Jenin's east is Mount Gilboa (Jabal Faqqua).

Jenin is 42 kilometers north of Nablus, 18 kilometers to the south of Afula, and 51 kilometers southeast of Haifa. The nearest localities are Umm at-Tut and Jalqamus to the southeast, Qabatiya and Zababdeh to the south, Burqin to the southwest, Kafr Dan to the west, Arranah, Jalamah and the Arab Israeli village of Muqeible to the north, Deir Ghazaleh to the northeast, and Beit Qad and Deir Abu Da'if to the east.

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:

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.

Demographics

According to the 2007 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Jenin had a population of 39,004, the Jenin Refugee Camp of 10,371 with 9,571 registered refugees on 373 dunams (92 acres). Some 42.3% of the population of the camp was under the age of 15.

Public institutions and landmarks

The Khalil Suleiman Hospital is located in Jenin.

The city has a monument honoring German pilots shot down in Jenin during the First World War which incorporates an original wooden propeller. An old British Mandate landing strip, Muqeible Airfield, is located in Jenin. The main and largest mosque of Jenin is the Fatima Khatun Mosque, built in 1566.

Education and culture

The Arab American University is located in Jenin's vicinity.

Cinema Jenin is the largest movie theater in the area. The theater, which reopened in 2010 after a 23-year intermission, has indoor and outdoor screens, a film library and educational facilities.Strings of Freedom is an orchestra in Jenin founded by an Israeli Arab, Wafaa Younis, who travels form her home in central Israel to teach music to the local youth.

Since 2010, the Gilboa Regional Council has been working with the Jenin district authorities on the development of joint tourism projects.