Silwad ( ar, سلواد) is a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

town located north-east of

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 ...

, about 5 km away from the

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 ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

highway. Silwad's altitude is about 851 meters above sea level. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures a ...

(PCBS), the town had a population of 6,123 inhabitants in 2007.

Etymology

Historians have argued the etymology of Silwad's name. Some debated that it is derived from the words ''lisan'' and ''wad'', meaning "tongue of the valley," as the town is surrounded by mountains from all sides, while the town appears as a tongue amidst the mountains. Others claim that "Silwad" comes from the words ''sal'' and ''wad'', meaning "a running valley."

Climate

The climate is Mediterranean-mountainous. Silwad experiences cold and humid winters with several days of snow almost every year with an average annual precipitation of about 750 millimeters (29.5 inches). The summers are dry and mild. This climate is suitable for growing

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

nectarine The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fuz ...

kiwifruit Kiwifruit (often shortened to kiwi in North American, British and continental European English) or Chinese gooseberry is the edible berry of several species of woody vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' ...

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

es,

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

s 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'' ...

Location

Silwad, which includes

Silwad Camp Silwad Camp (Arabic: مخيم سلواد), is a Palestinian refugee camp north-east of Ramallah, was established in 1972. The transfer took place in the form of the restructuring of the Nuseirat, Shati and Bureij refugee camps in Gaza. Buildi ...

, is located (horizontally) northeast of

. It is bordered by

Deir Jarir Deir Jarir ( ar, دير جرير) is a Palestinian people, Palestinian agricultural town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank, located northeast of Ramallah. It is situated on a hilltop overlooking the Jordan Valley (M ...

and Et Taiyiba to the east, Al Mazra'a ash Sharqiya and Jaljiliya to the north, Yabrud, Atara and

Ein Siniya Ein Siniya ( ar, عين سينيا, ''‘Ayn Sîniyâ'') is a small Palestinian village of over 700 people in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, north of Ramallah, and approximately 1km northeast from Jifna.Grant, 1921, p223 It lies in a valle ...

to the west and

Ein Yabrud Ein Yabrud ( ar, عين يبرود) is a Palestinian people, Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank. It is located approximately 7 km northeast of the city of Ramallah and its elevation is 800 m ...

to the south.

History

Silwad was inhabited in the

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

era.Finkelstein et al. 1997, p. 572. Citing Kallai.

Ottoman era

Silwad was inhabited in the early Ottoman era. In the spring of 1697,

Henry Maundrell Henry Maundrell (1665–1701) was an academic at Oxford University and later a Church of England clergyman, who served from 20 December 1695 as chaplain to the Levant Company in Syria. His ''Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697'' ...

noted two "Arab villages," first "Geeb" and then "Selwid," both on the west side of the road on the way south from Nablus to Jerusalem.Maundrell, 1703, p
63
March 25, 1697 Edward Robinson identified these two villages as Jibiya and Silwad. In 1838, ''Selwad'' was noted as a

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 ...

village in the District of ''Beni Murrah,'' north of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
125
/ref> An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted 205 houses and a population of 817 in Silwad, though the population count included men, only. In 1882, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

'' described it as being situated on a hill, and having ancient tombs and a fine spring. In 1896 the population of Silwad was estimated to be about 1,845 persons.

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, Silwad had a population of 1,344, all Muslim,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah,
17
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 1631 Muslims and 4 Christians, in a total of 380 houses.Mills, 1932, p
54
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,910 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> while the total land area was 14,186

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, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 12,909 were plantations and irrigable land, 2,496 for cereals, while 72 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian era

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. Jordan confiscated lands of Silwad and nearby

for the construction of a military camp before the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

.State moves to expand settlement on Palestinian land confiscated by Jordan
/ref> The Jordanian census of 1961 found 3,215 inhabitants.

1967-present

Since the

in 1967, Silwad has been under

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

. Only 1.7% of village land belongs to Area A in the Oslo II Accord, while 37.7% is defined as

Area B The Palestinian enclaves are areas in the West Bank designated for Palestinians under a variety of U.S. and Israeli-led proposals to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The enclaves are often compared to the nominally self-governing black ...

, and the remaining 60.6% is Area C. Silwad town profile (including Silwad camp)
ARIJ, p. 21 The economy of Silwad is based on farming as well as handicrafts.

Land confiscation

The Jordanian buildings formed the initial basis of 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 ...

Ofra Ofra ( he, עֹפְרָה) is an Israeli settlement located in the northern West Bank. Located on the main road between Jerusalem and Nablus (Route 60), it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. In it had a population ...

founded in 1975. Plans for further expansion of Ofra in this land in 2011 resulted in legal challenges and public dispute. According to ARIJ, Israel has confiscated 988 dunams of land from Silwad for the construction of

. Silwad villagers have petitioned the High Court to be allowed to farm their traditional lands to which they had been denied access for a decade. They requested the right to access to some 3,100 dunams, a quarter of Silwad's lands of which has been blocked by

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

. Land that has been blocked from cultivation in this way includes property of villagers from

Taybeh Taybeh ( ar, الطيبة) is a Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank, 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) northeast of Jerusalem Ein Yabrud Ein Yabrud ( ar, عين يبرود) is a Palestinian people, Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank. It is located approximately 7 km northeast of the city of Ramallah and its elevation is 800 m ...

and

. The

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

blocked Silwad villagers from accessing their farming lands when under escort from peace activists; these lands cannot be entered directly from the village itself but only via the

of Ofra. The incident occurred after they had obtained permission to enter it, under escort from volunteers of

Yesh Din Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights ( he, יש דין) is an Israeli organization working in Israel and in the West Bank. The organization was founded in 2005 by a group of women who previously worked with the organization Machsom Watch. The p ...

3 March 2002 incident

A 22-year-old Silwad bricklayer, Thaer Hamad, according to a local report, used his grandfather's WW2 Jordanian army

bolt action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-action ...

Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arme ...

and 30 rounds to fire from a nearby hill, at Wadi Haramiya on an Israeli checkpoint, near the settlements of Ofra and Shilo, killing 7 soldiers and three civilian settlers.

Avi Issacharoff Avi Issacharoff ( he, אבי יששכרוף; born 1973) is an Israeli journalist, known for his focus on Palestinian affairs. He is a Middle East commentator for The Times of Israel and its sister news outlet Walla!, and the Palestinian and Arab A ...

'The cumulative impact of sporadic West Bank terror,'

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.

September 27, 2013. He let one settler woman and her two children pass unharmed. He told one person of his deed, word leaked out and he was eventually arrested in October 2004, put on trial and sentenced to 11 life sentences. Thaer had seen one of his uncle's (Nabil Hammad), killed when he was a child, during the

First Intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...

, and another shot dead by Israeli forces during the

Al-Aqsa 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. ...

. Robi Danelin, the mother of one of the dead soldiers, who said her son had served reluctantly in the West Bank, wrote a letter of reconciliation to Hamad's family. Her letter was rebuffed by Thaer, who brusquely dismissed what he described as an equation between casualties among soldiers in an army of occupation and martyrs killed in the course of their struggle for freedom.Coby Ben-Simho
'Forgiveness of dead IDF soldier's mother leaves Palestinian killer cold,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

29 October 2009. The episode formed the basis for the plot of

Najwa Najjar Najwa Najjar ( ar, نجوى نجار) is a film writer and director. She was born to a Jordan, Jordanian father and Palestinian mother. She began her career making commercials and has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999. Her debut f ...

's 2014 film, ''

Eyes of a Thief ''Eyes of a Thief'' ( ar, عيون الحرامية) is a 2014 Palestinian drama film directed by Najwa Najjar. It is Najjar's second feature film, and is based in part on an incident that took place in Silwad in 2002. It was selected as the ...

''.

24 October 2014 incident

Orwa Abd al-Wahhab Hammad (14/17), a US citizen who came from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

to the West Bank when he was 6, and was a cousin of Thaer Hamad,Gili Cohen, Jack Khour
'Palestinian-American teen killed by IDF gunfire during West Bank protest,'

25 October 2014. was shot dead with a bullet to the neck which exited from his headAllison Deger
'Israeli army kills 14-year old Palestinian with U.S. citizenship'

Mondoweiss ''Mondoweiss'' is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on ''The New York Observer'' website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it ...

25 October 2014.

Isabel Kershner Isabel Kershner is a British-born Israeli journalist and author, who began reporting from Jerusalem for ''The New York Times'' in 2007. Kershner had previously worked as senior Middle East editor for ''The Jerusalem Report'' magazine. She has al ...

'Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Teenager in the West Bank, the 2nd in 8 Days,'

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

24 October 2014. during a demonstration in the village, reportedly by an Israeli sniper. He was the second such teenager killed by IDF live fire in the West Bank in 8 days, the 10th since the beginning of 2014, adding to the total of 34 Palestinian victims of IDF gunfire at civilians in the West Bank since mid-June. In various reports IDF sources state he was shot when he threw a bomb, or that an adult was shot when he lit a molotov cocktail fuse and was readying himself to throw it on Route 60. His cousin said he was among a group of rock-throwing Palestinians.

Demographics

According to the estimates of Silwad Association in Jordan the population of the people of Silwad in Diaspora exceeds 25,000 (1996 estimates). Among these, 8,000 reside in Silwad. There are about 8,000 Palestinians from Silwad in Kuwait, and there are also some in North and South America, especially

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

.PALESTINE : Silwad, a History of Revolts
/ref>

Notable people from Silwad

Mufid Abdulqader Mufid Abdulqader is a former Dallas Public Works and Transportation Department engineer, entrepreneurial investor, and music and skit performer who was convicted to 20 years of prison for raising funds for Hamas, on three separate conspiracy charge ...

, an activist with the

Holy Land Foundation The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, and run by Palestinian-Americans, it was originally known as Occupied Land Fund. The organization's mission was to "find and ...

Qadura Fares Qadura Fares ( ar, قدّورة فارس) was a Palestinian Authority minister without portfolio under Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei from 2003 to 2005, and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Fatah from 1996 to 2006. He is a close frien ...

, Political leader of

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 ...

Khaled Mashal Khaled Mashal ( ar, خالد مشعل, Khālid Mashʿal, Levantine Arabic: , born 28 May 1956) is a former leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas. After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal became the leader of the Kuwaiti branch of th ...

, leader of

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

References

Bibliography

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

External links

Welcome to the City of SilwadSilwad
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14
IAAWikimedia commons

Silwad town (including Silwad camp) (fact sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ar, معهد الابحاث التطبيقية - القدس) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research project ...

(ARIJ)
Silwad town profile (including Silwad camp)
ARIJ
Silwad aerial photo
ARIJ
Silwad camp aerial photo
ARIJ
Silwad.com Deir Jarir & Silwad: Two Palestinian villages Hammered by the Israeli Occupation
15, March, 2008, POICA {{Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate Towns in the West Bank Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate Municipalities of the State of Palestine