Qalqilya or Qalqiliya ( ar, قلقيلية, Qalqīlyaḧ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate of the

State of Palestine Palestine ( ar, فلسطين, Filasṭīn), Legal status of the State of Palestine, officially the State of Palestine ( ar, دولة فلسطين, Dawlat Filasṭīn, label=none), is a state (polity), state located in Western Asia. Officiall ...

. In the 2007 census, the city had a population of 41,739. Qalqilya is surrounded by the

Israeli West Bank wall The Israeli West Bank barrier, comprising the West Bank Wall and the West Bank fence, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line (Israel), Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. It is a contentious element of the Isr ...

, with a narrow gap in the east controlled by the Israeli military and a tunnel to the Palestinian town of Hableh. Qalqilya is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority (as part of Area A), while remaining under Israeli military occupation. Oranges are a major part of the city's economy.

Etymology

Qalqilya was known as ''Calecailes'' in the Roman period, and ''Calcelie'' in the Frankish sources from the early Medieval times. The word "Qalqilya" might be derived from a Canaanite term which means "rounded stones or hills". قلقيلية

According to

E.H. Palmer Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an English orientalist and explorer. Biography Youth and education Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoolmaster. He was orphaned a ...

, the name came from "a type of pomegranate", or "gurgling of water".Palmer, 1881, p
183
/ref>

History

The vicinity of Qalqilya has been populated since

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

times, as attested to by the discovery of prehistoric flint tools.

Ottoman era

In 1596, Qalqilya appeared in Ottoman tax registers (transliterated as ''Qalqili'') as a village in the '' nahiya'' (subdistrict) of Bani Sa'b in the ''

Liwa Liwa may refer to: Places ; Chad *Liwa (sub-prefecture) in Mamdi Department ; Indonesia *Liwa, Indonesia ; Oman * Liwa, Oman, place in Oman, area around Sohar University *Liwa Province, Oman (wilayah) ; Poland *Liwa, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeshi ...

'' of

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 ...

. It had a population of 13 Muslim households and paid a total of 3,910

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

in taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives. In 1838, Edward Robinson noted ''Kulakilieh'' as a village in ''Beni Sa'ab'' district, west of Nablus. In 1870, Victor Guérin said it was a village with 200 inhabitants. In 1882, Qalqilya was described as "A large somewhat straggling village, with

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 to the north and a pool on the south-west. The houses are badly built."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
165
/ref> In 1883 some moved there from nearby Baqat al-Hatab, and in 1909 a municipal council to administer Qalqilya was established.

British Mandate era

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, Qalqilya had a population of 2,803 (2,794 Muslims and 9 Christians),Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p.
27
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 3,867 (3,855 Muslims and 12 Christians), in a total of 796 houses.Mills, 1932, p
56
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Qalqilya was 5,850; 5,840 Muslims and 10 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
21
/ref> who owned 27,915

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. Of this, 3701 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 3,232 were plantations and irrigable land, 16,197 used for cereals, while 273 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Qalqilya 1942

1948 War

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. During the war, many inhabitants from nearby villages, including Kafr Saba,

Abu Kishk Abu Kishk (Arabic: ) was a Palestinian village in the Jaffa Subdistrict located 12 km northeast of Jaffa, situated 2 km northwest of the Yarkon River. The village was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestin ...

, Miska, Biyar 'Adas and

Shaykh Muwannis Al-Shaykh Muwannis ( ar, الشيخ مونّس), also Sheikh Munis, was a small Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, located approximately 8.5 kilometers from the center of Jaffa city in territory earmarked ...

fled to Qalqilya as

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

. Following the battle of the nearby Arab village of Kafr Saba, the residents of Qalqilya fled and later returned with the arrival of the

Jordanian Arab Legion The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of independent Jordan, with a final Arabization of its command taking place in 19 ...

and the Iraqi expeditionary force, except for some 2,000 upper class residents who moved to

. The main reason for the partial return was the difficult economic situation in the front-line town and the inability to access the crop fields.

Jordanian era

The area was annexed by Jordan in 1950. On the night of 10 October 1956 the

Israeli army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branc ...

launched a raid against Qalqilya police station in response to a Jordanian attack on Israeli bus, among other incidents. The attack was ordered by

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...

and involved several thousand soldiers. During the fighting a paratroop company was surrounded by Jordanian troops and the survivors only escaped under close air-cover from four Israeli Air Force aircraft. Eighteen Israelis and between 70 and 90 Jordanians were killed in the operation. In 1961, the population of Qalqilya was 11,401.

Post 1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Qalqilya has been under Israeli occupation. Later that year, dozens of its inhabitants were evicted by Israel to Jordan, and at least 850 buildings were razed. In his memoirs,

described the destruction as a "

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular acti ...

" that was designed to chase the inhabitants away contrary to the government policy. The villagers were eventually allowed to return and the reconstruction of damaged houses was financed by the military authorities. In September 1967, a census found 8,922 persons, of whom 1,837 were originally from Israeli territory. As part of the 1993

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

between Israel and the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

(PLO), control of Qalqilya was transferred to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on 17 December 1995. In 2003, the Israeli West Bank barrier was built, encircling the town and separating it from agricultural lands on the other side of the wall. In November 2015, Israel arrested what it alleged to be a network of 24 Hamas militants active in the city. On 20 October 2017, the Palestinian city of Qalqilya named a street after Saddam Hussein and erected a memorial with his likeness, according to an Israeli newspaper. The monument was unveiled at a ceremony attended by the Qalqilya District Governor Rafi Rawajba and two other Palestinian officials. It bears the slogan “Saddam Hussein – The Master of the Martyrs in Our Age”, as well as “Arab Palestine from the River to the Sea”, a slogan often used by Hussein that refers to the Palestinian liberation movement. On 19 June 2022, a 53-year-old unarmed Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces as he allegedly sought to cross the Israeli West Bank barrier, which encircles Qalqilya.

Geography

Qalqilya is located in the northwestern West Bank, straddling the border with Israel. It is 16 kilometers southwest of the Palestinian city of Tulkarm, and the nearest localities are the Arab-Israeli city of Tira and the Palestinian hamlet of 'Arab al-Ramadin al-Shamali to the northeast, the Palestinian village of

Nabi Ilyas Nabi Ilyas ( ar, قرية النبي الياس) is a Palestinian village in the Qalqilya Governorate in the western West Bank, located two kilometers east of Qalqilya. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, an Nabi Ilyas had a ...

to the east, the Palestinian hamlets 'Arab Abu Farda and 'Arab ar-Ramadin al-Janubi and the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

of Alfei Menashe to the southwest, and the Palestinian village

Habla Hableh ( ar, حبله, also transliterated Hable, Habla, Hablah, Hibla, Hiblah) is a Palestinian village located in the Qalqilya Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northwestern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of S ...

and Arab-Israeli town of Jaljuliya to the south. It contains the point in the West Bank closest to the Mediterranean Sea, with about 14 km to the coast at Shefayim. Qalqilya has an average elevation of 57 meters above sea level. The average annual rainfall 587.4 millimeters and the average annual temperature is 19 degrees Celsius.

Demographics

The 1997 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) recorded Qalqilya's population to be 22,168. The majority of the inhabitants (69.8%) were Palestinian refugees or their descendants.. 1997 Census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). 1999. In the 2007 census, Qalqilya's population was 41,739 (50.9% male and (49.1% female). The number of registered households was 7,866. In the 2017 census, Qalqiliya's population was 51,683.

Government

Hamas won the 2006 municipal elections in Qalqiliya and one of its members, Wajih Qawas, became mayor, although he was incarcerated by Israel for much of his term. On 12 September 2009, the PNA dismissed Qawas for allowing Qalqiliya's debt to grow unchecked, failing to attract international funding for city projects and ignoring orders by the Palestinian government. Qawas, however, viewed his dismissal as a result of the ongoing feud between Hamas, which dominates the PNA in the Gaza Strip and

Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

, which dominates the PNA in the West Bank. Human rights groups criticized Qawas's dismissal, condemning the intervention by the central Palestinian authorities in the affairs of an elected official. During the 2012 municipal elections,

member Othman Dawood was elected mayor.

Economy

Between 1967 and 1995 almost 80 percent of Qalqilya's labor force worked for Israeli companies or industries in the construction and agriculture sectors. The remaining 20% engaged in trade and commerce, marketing across the Green Line. According to a field survey taken by the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ), 45% of Qalqilya's working population was employed by government, 25% worked in agriculture, 15% worked in trade and commerce, 10% worked in industry and 5% worked in Israeli labor. In 2012, the unemployment rate was 22%, with those most affected formerly employed in agriculture, trade and services. Qalqilya is particularly known for its citrus crop and of its total of 10,252 dunams of land, (of which 5,930 are arable) 1802 dunams (about 17.6% of the city's land and over 30% of its arable land) are planted with citrus trees. Other major crops are olives and vegetables. Local industries include the manufacture of foodstuffs, olive oil, dairy products, soap, glass, stone, marble and building materials, in addition to the manufacture of wood, and mineral water companies. The Qalqilya Zoo, established in 1986, is currently the only zoo in the West Bank and in the

, and, according to its owner, is the city's single-largest employer. It serves as one of Qalqilya's main attractions. The zoo houses 170 animals and works closely with zoologists from the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and the

Ramat Gan Safari The Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan (commonly known as the Safari Ramat Gan) in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel is the largest collection of wildlife in human care in the Middle East. The 250-acre site consists of both a driv ...

The only factory for prosthetic limbs in the northern West Bank is in Qalqilya.

Souqs

In Qalqilya there are many markets, including: * ''Souq Abu Amsha'' (سوق أبو عمشة) * ''Souq Shaheen'' (سوق شاهين) * ''Souq Abu Jaber'' (سوق أبو جابر) * ''Souq Beshara'' (سوق بشارة) * ''Souq Uthman'' (سوق عثمان) * ''Souq Shawer'' (سوق شاور) * ''Souq Al-Aqsa'' (سوق الأقصى)

Land usage and the barrier

Of the city's total area of 10,252 dunams, 3,027 were built-up areas, 266 were used for industrial purposes, 2,894 were planted with permanent crops, 419 were used for greenhouses, 274 for livestock ranges, 2,343 others were classified as arable, and 283 dunams were occupied by the West Bank barrier. Nearly all of Qalqilya's urban area is under Palestinian civil jurisdiction and Israeli military control (Area B), while 64.7% of the city's municipal territory, mostly agricultural lands and open spaces, is under Israeli civil and military control (Area C). Jit, Qalqilya 01

Israel's construction of the barrier began in 2002 and isolates Qalqilya from the north, west, south, and half of its eastern side, leaving a corridor in the east connecting it with smaller Palestinian villages and hamlets. Israel states its construction of the wall is for security purposes, particularly to prevent infiltration by Palestinian militants into Israel as had occurred during the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...

. The Palestinians state that the barrier is meant to annex Palestinian lands (since the wall often juts deep into Palestinian territory) and control the movement of Palestinians. The barrier has negatively affected Qalqilya's economy, particularly the commercial and trade sectors, because it has separated the city from nearby Palestinian localities and bordering Arab towns in Israel, which contributed about 40% of the city's income prior to the barrier's completion. The barrier has also separated 1,836 dunams of mostly agricultural lands and open spaces within Qalqilya's jurisdiction from the city proper. Social relations between Qalqilya's inhabitants and those of other Palestinian cities have also been hindered by the barrier. File:Aerial photographs of Kalkilya and Road 6 IMG 2018.JPG, alt=, Aerial view of Qalqilya, surrounded by the

Separation Wall A separation barrier or separation wall is a barrier, wall or fence, constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to separate peoples or cultures. A separation barrier that runs along an internationally recogni ...

File:Qalqilyafarmer.jpg, alt=, Farmer in Qalqiliya Qalqiliya-pflpmartyrmonument

Education

According to the 2007 PCBS census, 95.3% of the inhabitants over the age of 10 were literate. About 75% of the illiterate population were women. The town has 21 public schools, four private schools, three schools managed by UNRWA and 13 kindergartens. All schools are overseen by the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education. As of 2012, there were 12,286 residents enrolled in school, with 660 teaching staff. In 2007, 10.5% of the population had graduated from an institution of higher education, while 15.7% had completed secondary education, 27.5% preparatory education, 27.4% elementary education and 13.8% had no formal education. There are two colleges in the city: the Ad Da'wa Islamic College established in 1978 and a campus of the Al-Quds Open University established in 1998.

Culture

There are charities, recreational and cultural clubs, Qalqilya TV, and a radio station (Radio Nagham). In the Qalqilya governorate, the NGO Cultural Forum Society (جمعية منتدى المقفين الخيرية) played a role in publicizing the residents' economic and political problems due to the occupation, the wall, and settlements.

International relations

Qalqilya is twinned with: * Mülheim, friendship.

Notable people

* Bahaa Al-Din Dawood Bin Ismail Al-Qalqili, a scholar of the eighth century AH who taught in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

and died in the year 780 AH, according to the book '"Fragments of Gold in News from Gold'' by Ibn General Shihab al-Din al-Hanbali al-Dimashqi * Abu Ali Iyad,

field commander in Jordan and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Najm al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qalqili Najm () or Najam (also Negm, in Egyptian Arabic, Egyptian dialect / pronunciation) is an Arabic word meaning ''MORNING STAR''. It is used as a given name in Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. Najm is the male version of the name and Najma ( ...

, a scholar born in Qalqilya who moved to Al-Quds Al-Sharif as a child and later went Cairo to study at

Al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

. In Egypt he compiled his book ''Ghani al-Murayd to know perfection and intonation'', completed in 882 AH * Khair al-Din Abu al-Khair Ahmad bin Shihab al-Din Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Qalqili, a reciter of Quran (died in 89 AH) *

Sheikh Mustafa Sabry Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

(1870–1957), a religious orator (khatib خطيب) and reformer *

Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Shanti Ibrahim ( ar, إبراهيم, links=no ') is the Arabic name for Abraham, a Biblical patriarch and prophet in Islam. For the Islamic view of Ibrahim, see Abraham in Islam. Ibrahim may also refer to: * Ibrahim (name), a name (and list of people w ...

(Qalqilya, 1927–

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

, 2018), a writer and journalist *

Hashem El-Seba HaShem ( Hebrew: ''hšm'', literally "''the name''"; often abbreviated to 'h′'' is a title used in Judaism to refer to God. It is also a given name and surname. Religious usage * In Judaism, '' HaShem'' (lit. 'the Name') is used to refe ...

(1912–1957), a Palestinian militant * Muayad Afaneh, (born 1975), prepared an analytical paper on the political, economic and social situation of Qalqilya Governorate

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To The City of QalqiliyaQalqilya City
Welcome to Palestine
Qalqiliya City (Fact Sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, (ARIJ)
Qalqiliya City Profile
ARIJ
Qalqiliya aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Qalqiliya
ARIJ *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11
IAAWikimedia commons
* {{Authority control Qalqilyah Qalqilya Governorate