Jenin

Jenin^[1] also refers to the adjoining Jenin Refugee Camp and is the name of the surrounding district within the West Bank. Although designated as being under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, the Israel Defense Force invaded the city during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and has conducted regular incursions into the city since.

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.

Geography

The ^[2] 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).^{citation needed}

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^[3]

History

Jenin was known in ancient times as the Canaanite village of Ein-Ganeem or Tel Jenin.^[4]^[5] The city of Ein-Ganeem is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the city of the Levites of the Tribe of Issachar.^[6] After some years, the city's name was changed to Ginat. In book of Yehudit^[7] the settlement is mentioned as Gini. The Jewish historian Josephus also mentioned Ganim as a city in northern Samaria.^[8] 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 assassination by the British of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, 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.^[9]

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 cemetry of the martyrs of the Iraqi army and some Palestinians who fought with them against the Israeli forces.^[10]

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.^{citation needed} In that time, residents of Jenin have been subject to extended curfews (over 150 days since June 2002, nearly all prior to 2004. Several suspected Palestinian militants and nearby civilians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces, which terms these actions "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.^[11]^[12] Dr. David Zangen, a reservist in the IDF, found photograph albums of Palestinian children from roughly 6 years of age up through early and mid-teens. It was an album of photos of children who would be the next crop of suicide killers, with notations indicating when each of the children would be ripe. ^[13]

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. ^[14] The mayor of Jenin is Hadem Rida.

Contents

Demographics

Geography

Features

History

Conflict years

Battle of Jenin

See also

External links

References

Politics