Qalqilyah

Infobox Palestinian Authority muni
name=Qalqilya


imgsize=250
caption=Qalqilya mosque and houses
arname=قلقيلية
meaning=
founded=
type=muna
typefrom=
altOffSp=
altUnoSp=
governorate=ql
latd=32|latm=11|lats=25.36|latNS=N
longd=34|longm=58|longs=06.63|longEW=E
population=44,700
popyear=2006
area=25,637
areakm=25.6
mayor=Marouf Zahran

Qalqilyah (Arabic قلقيلية unicode|Qalqīlyaḧ; Hebrew קַלְקִילִיָה) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. Most of the residents are farmers, and constant contact with Israeli farmers prior to the erection of the Israeli West Bank barrier made many residents of Qalqīlyah bilingual. The town is located in the West Bank's closest point to the Mediterranean Sea, km to mi|12 from the coastline. As of 2006, the town had an estimated population of 38,000 and was completely encircled by the separation barrier.

History

Early history

The town's area has been populated from prehistoric times, and prehistoric flint tools were found in the modern town's area. In Roman times, a way-station existed in the location called Cala-c'Aliya. Invading armies, many of which came from the Mediterranean coast just 12 km away, often came through Qalqilyah. The ancient Israelite town of Kaballah is thought to be the nearby village of Habla. Its current name comes from the Arabic Qala'alia, meaning high fortress. During the subsequent Muslim rules of the area, the town was populated with Arab inhabitants.

Recent history

Residents established an independent local council in 1909, and by 1945, a municipal council. In World War I, a few Jewish families settled in the town after being evicted from Tel Aviv by the ruling Ottoman administration.

Thousands of landless Palestinian refugees took refuge in the city during the 1948 Palestinian exodus in the lead up to and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, making one city quarter their home. Known as the people of Kfar Saba and Arab Abu Kishek, the refugees received assistance from UNRWA, but a refugee camp was never formally established because local politicians negotiated for UN assistance to be provided to the whole city in return for integrating the refugees.

In the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and Jordan, the town was included in the Jordanian-occupied area, together with the rest of the West Bank.

After the town came under Israeli occupation in the 1967 Six-Day War, a military order was given to destroy it and expel the inhabitants. Between 9 June and 18 July 1967 at least 850 out of 2,000 dwellings in Qalqilyah were destroyed. After a group of Israeli intellectuals and academics intervened by appealing to the government to halt the destruction, the order was cancelled. [Nur Masalha, [http://www.shaml.org/publications/news/news7.htm] ; Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Washington Post, February 7, 1988.]

Following the Oslo Accords, the town came under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Qalqilyah was the scene of the first firefight of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, on September 29, 2000, when a Palestinian police officer working with Israeli police on a joint patrol opened fire, killing his Israeli counterpart. Since then Israeli security forces routinely enter the town and arrest suspects.

Since 2003, the Israeli West Bank barrier has been built to completely encircle Qalqilyah, separating the city from agricultural lands on the other side of the wall, leading to anger and protests from many of the citizens of the city.

In this town on March 26, 2008, Israeli soldiers arrested Omar Jabar, the Hamas planner of the Netanya suicide attack that killed 30 people and wounded 143 others during a Passover dinner celebration in 2002. [Israel: Hamas Mastermind Captured [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE8A6egiufK2n2Cmv5iBTi9Zq_DgD8VL6KR81] ; Associated Press, March 26, 2008.]

Economy

Between 1967-1995 almost 80 percent of Qalqilya's labor force worked for Israeli companies or industries in the construction and agriculture sectors. The other 20% engaged in trade and commerce, and many if not most of their traditional markets are across the green line.

Government

The mayor of town of Qalqilyah belongs to Hamas. He was recently released from an Israeli prison.

The wider Qalqilya Governorate was one of only three governorates where Fatah won over Hamas in the Palestinian election of 2006.

References

"Palestine", Mariam Shahin and George Azar 2005, ISBN 1-56656-557-X

External links

* [http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/barrier/profiles/qalqilya.html UNRWA Profile:Qalqilya Town Update 2004]
* [http://www.infactah.com/2006/04/irish-eyes-in-west-bank.html Irish eyes in the Westbank]