Faqqu'a ( ar, فقوعة) is a village on the northern West Bank, known for its cactus fruits, located along the

Green Line Green Line may refer to: Places Military and political * Green Line (France), the German occupation line in France during World War II * Green Line (Israel), the 1949 armistice line established between Israel and its neighbours ** City Line ( ...

on the Gilboa ridge. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 3,490 inhabitants in mid-year 2006, an exclusively

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

population. The village belongs to the

Jenin Governorate The Jenin Governorate ( ar, محافظة جنين, Muḥāfaẓat Ǧanīn) is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. It covers the northern extremity of the West Bank, including the area around the city of Jenin. During the first six months of th ...

History

The village's history is rather unknown, although there are numerous findings that reveal a Roman or Byzantine presence. Roman coins have been found in the area and there are several sites that are believed to be burial grounds as well as remains of ancient olive oil production. It’s possible to find fragments of ancient pottery when simply wandering around the surrounding olive orchards. There is a common belief in local folklore that a Roman settlement once thrived nearby the current village.

Ottoman period

In 1838, Fuku'a was noted as one of a range of villages round a height, the other villages being named as Deir Abu Da'if, Beit Kad, Deir Ghuzal and

Araneh ’Arrana ( ar, عرّانه) is a Palestinian village in the Jenin Governorate, located 4 kilometers Northeast of Jenin, in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,144 ...

. It was located in the Jenin district. In 1870 Victor Guérin visited the village and noted that the village gave name to the mountain range. He further noted that the village had about 400 inhabitants, with houses of stone. There were several old

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

s cut into the rock, and some gardens bordered by cactus. In 1882, the

PEF PEF, PeF, or Pef may stand for the following abbreviations: * Palestine Exploration Fund * Peak expiratory flow * PEF Private University of Management Vienna * Pentax raw file (see Raw image format) * Perpetual Education Fund * Perpetual Emigratio ...

's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''Fukua'' as "A large village on top of a spur. It gives its name to the Gilboa range, which is often called ''Jebel Fukua''. It is surrounded by olive-gardens, and supplied by cisterns east and west of the village."

British Mandate period

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divisi ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Faqu'a'' had a population of 553; all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p
29
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 663; still all Muslims, in a total of 153 houses.Mills, 1932, p
68
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, ''Faqqu'a'' had a population of 880 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
16
and the jurisdiction of the village was 30,179

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s of land, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
54
/ref> Of this, 1,131 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 8,440 dunams for cereals, while 22 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian period

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,099 inhabitants in ''Faqqu'a''.

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Faqqua has been under Israeli occupation.

Geography

The village is located in the most northeastern part of the West Bank, 11 km east of the city of

Jenin Jenin (; ar, ') is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate of the State of Palestine and is a major center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, Jenin had a population of app ...

, adjacent to the Green Line. Faqqu'a lies just below the ridge of the Gilboa hills, which locals eponymously call Jebel Faqqu'a, overlooking the fertile Jezreel Valley (Marj Ibn Amer in Arabic), the city of Jenin and other Palestinian villages. The higher part of the range, which is located on the Israeli side, is now an area where people come to hike or to enjoy the blooming of wild flowers during springtime. The scenic view from the top is spectacular; Mount Gilboa rises to a height of 508 m above the sea level, overlooking both the Jezreel Valley in the west and the Israeli town of Bet She'an and the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

Valley in the east. Villagers owned 36,000

s (36 km²) of land before the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

in what is today Israel.Impact of the Segregation Wall on the Palestinian communities The village of Faqqua strangled by the Wall
www.poica.org The village itself lies on a hill about 450 meters above sea level. The area around Faqqu'a is largely rocky, but there are terraces, which make it suitable for a number of trees, such as almond and

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

trees which dominate the habitat. There are also patches of small plains scattered around the area that have been utilized to grow different produce such as wheat, lentils in the winter, and vegetables during the summer period.

Social structure

The village's 3,490 inhabitants are exclusively Muslim, in contrast to some neighboring villages which have a mixed population of both Muslim and

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

families. The social structure in the village is somewhat different from a typical western community. A traditional Palestinian village is built up by a so-called family-clan structure of a '' hamula'' (clan), where social and gender relations are organized around a system of production and re-production. Even if the importance of the ''hamula'' has declined immensely, the clan-structure still exists. Every ''hamula'' can be sub-divided into extended families, in Arabic ''ayle''. Within each ''ayle'' there are several nuclear families. The most important group today is, however, the ''ayle''. There at least 15 extended families (''ayle'') in Faqqu'a today. The ten largest families are; Abu-Salameh, Al-Khateeb, A-Massad, Abu-Farha, Zeidat, Jaludi, Sharafi, Abu-Nassar, Abu-Assaf and Abu-Hussein..

Economy

Agriculture had earlier been the prime source of income, but modernisation has seen most families survive by earning their livelihood from other sectors while farming land on afternoons and weekends. Some people are involved in construction, while other have businesses in Jenin, less than 11 kilometres from Faqqu'a. Academics, however, are more likely to find work in neighbouring cities such as

Nablus Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...

where political and economical life is centred. Commuting between the regions has nevertheless become an endeavour due to the numerous Israel Defense Forces checkpoints. Faqqua 2

Water

The water conditions in Faqqu'a are similar to problems seen in other parts in the West Bank. The situation has become even worse since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, since high water price and the economic hardship have aggravated the water shortage even further. Faqqua's only water source is the Abu 'Ahed well in the village of

Deir Ghazaleh Deir Ghazaleh ( ar, دير غزالة) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located nine kilometers northeast of Jenin in the Jenin Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Deir Ghazaleh had a popula ...

located about 5 kilometres away. Water is transported via tankers due to the lack of a water network.

West Bank barrier

The Israeli West Bank barrier in the area of Faqqu'a is a fence system that runs roughly along the

Green line Green Line may refer to: Places Military and political * Green Line (France), the German occupation line in France during World War II * Green Line (Israel), the 1949 armistice line established between Israel and its neighbours ** City Line ( ...

, which the village straddles.B'Tselem
/ref> The construction of the barrier, which the village was informed of in 2003 and which was completed two years later, resulted in the expropriation of 245 dunum (0.245 km²) upon which grew 350 olive trees as well as clover and carob trees.

Infrastructure

The village consists of several hundred private buildings, mostly two storey, that are centred on the top of a hill. A paved road, from the foot of the hill, twists up the hillside to an intersection where residents stand in line to get to the city by taxi. A public transportation network does not exist, so the residents are dependent on the taxi-vans that run between the village and

. The ride takes about 10 minutes, but can last up to 50 minutes when checkpoints and roadblocks force detours, though this scenario has become less frequent as a result of the dismantling in 2005 of Ganim and Kadim in Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. The intersection in Faqqu'a has developed into the village's commercial centre. There are four

mosques A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...

in the village, and another one is being constructed. Telephone lines are rare in the village, but most people are today owners of one or two cellular phones (Israeli and Palestinian line). There are two schools, one for boys and one for girls. The girls' school reaches the level of senior high school.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Faqqu'aFaqqua
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 9
IAAWikimedia commonsImpact of the Segregation Wall on the Palestinian communities The village of Faqqua strangled by the Wall
POICA
The village of Faqqua - Jenin district
POICA *https://web.archive.org/web/20080928215932/http://www.faqoa.ps/ *http://faqoa.yoo7.com/ {{Jenin Governorate Villages in the West Bank Jenin Governorate Municipalities of the State of Palestine