Ramallah
Ramallah is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine. It serves as the administrative capital of Palestine, as well as capital of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. The city is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of above sea level, adjacent to al-Bireh.
Ramallah has buildings containing masonry from the period of Herod the Great, but no complete building predates the Crusades of the 11th century. The modern city was founded during the 16th century by the Hadadeens, an Arab Christian clan descended from Ghassanids. In 1517, the city was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, and in 1920, it became part of British Mandatory Palestine after it was captured by the United Kingdom during World War I. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw the entire West Bank, including Ramallah, occupied and annexed by Transjordan. Ramallah was later captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Since the 1995 Oslo Accords, Ramallah has been governed by the Palestinian Authority, as part of Area A in the West Bank.
Ramallah has emerged as a key political, cultural, and economic center in recent years. It houses various Palestinian governmental bodies, including the Mukataa, the official residence of the president of the Palestinian National Authority, the Palestinian Legislative Council, and the headquarters of the Palestinian Security Services. It is also home to several museums and cultural centers, and has a notable nightlife scene. Historically, the city was a predominantly Christian town, however the population of Muslims has increased to constitute a majority of Ramallah's 38,998 residents by 2017, while Christians make up a significant minority.
History
Early history
Ramallah was founded in the 16th century by the Hadadeens, an Arab Christian clan. The city boasts archaeological remnants from earlier epochs. Ancient rock-cut tombs have been found near Ramallah. Located just south of the built-up area is Tell en-Nasbeh, an archeological site where biblical Mizpah in Benjamin is likely to have been located.Several Ramallah buildings incorporate masonry dating back to the reign of Herod the Great. Potsherds from the Crusader/Ayyubid and early Ottoman period have also been found there. Ramallah has been identified with the Crusader place called Ramalie. Remains of a building with an arched doorway from the Crusader era, called al-Burj, have been identified, but the original use of the building is undetermined.
Ottoman period
The area of Ramallah was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine. Modern Ramallah was founded in the mid-1500s by the Haddadins, a clan of brothers descended from Ghassanid Christians. The Haddadins, and their leader Rashid el-Haddadin, arrived from east of the Jordan River from the areas of Karak and Shoubak. The Haddadin migration is attributed to fighting and unrest among clans in that area.Haddadin was attracted to the mountainous site of Ramallah because it was similar to the mountainous areas he came from. In addition, the heavily forested area could supply him with plenty of fuel for his forges. In 1596, Ramallah was listed in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Quds, part of the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 71 Christian households and 9 Muslim households. It paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, olives, vines or fruit trees, and goats or beehives; a total of 9,400 akçe. All of the revenue went to a waqf.
In 1838, American biblical scholar Edward Robinson visited the area, noting that the inhabitants were Christian "of the Greek rite". There were 200 taxable men, which gives an estimated total population of 800–900 people. The village "belonged" to the Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, to which it paid an annual tax of 350 Mids of grain. In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Ramallah as
A large Christian village, of well-built stone houses, standing on a high ridge, with a view on the west extending to the sea. It stands amongst gardens and olive-yards, and has three springs to the south and one on the west; on the north there are three more, within a mile from the village. On the east there is a well. There are rock-cut tombs to the north-east with well-cut entrances, but completely blocked with rubbish. In the village is a Greek church, and on the east a Latin convent and a Protestant schoolhouse, all modern buildings. The village lands are Wakuf, or ecclesiastical property, belonging to the Haram of Jerusalem. About a quarter of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, the rest Orthodox Greeks.
British Mandate
During World War I, the British Army captured and occupied Ramallah in December 1917. The city remained occupied until the designation of the Palestine Mandate in 1920, resulting in Ramallah falling under British Mandatory control until 1948. In the 1920s, the economy of Ramallah started to improve, resulting in the local Arab upper class ordering the construction of several multi-storied villas, many of which still stand today. In 1939, the Jerusalem Electric Company introduced electricity to Ramallah, and a majority of the city's homes became wired shortly thereafter. On the same year, the British Mandatory authorities inaugurated the state-owned Palestine Broadcasting Service in Ramallah, with BBC members training local radio staff to deliver daily broadcasts in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The station was later renamed Jerusalem Calling.The city became a center of insurgent activity when the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine broke out. The rebels subsequently established a court near Ramallah, in order to provide legal alternatives to the courts of the British Mandate. One British schoolteacher noted that the Ramallah court judge began to produce "news sheets on typewriters and duplicators, aimed at publicizing the alternative rebel regime."
Jordanian and Israeli occupation
Following the creation of the State of Israel and the ensuing conflict, Jordan seized part of the territory, which they named the West Bank, which included Ramallah. Jordan annexed the West Bank, applying its national law to the conquered territory. The West Bank was relatively peaceful during the years of Jordanian occupation between 1948 and 1967, with its residents enjoying freedom of movement between the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. However, many Palestinians were arrested and jailed for being members of "illegal political parties", which included the Palestine Communist Party, and other socialist and pro-independence groups. The city's population had doubled by 1953, but the economy and infrastructure could not accommodate the influx of poor villagers. Natives of Ramallah began to emigrate, primarily to the United States. About one fourth of Ramallah's 6,000 natives had left by 1956, with Arabs from the surrounding towns and villages buying the homes and land the émigrés left behind.File:2018 OCHA OpT map Ramallah.jpg|thumb|left|2018 United Nations map of the area, showing the Israeli occupation arrangements
During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured Ramallah from Jordan, imposing a military closure and conducting a census a few weeks later. Every person registered in the census was given an Israeli identity card which allowed the bearer to continue to reside there. Those who were abroad during the census lost their residency rights. Because of Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, for the first time in 19 years, residents of Ramallah could freely visit the Gaza Strip, as well as Israel, and engage in commerce there.
Unlike the Jordanians, Israel did not offer citizenship to the residents. Ramallah residents were issued permits to work in Israel, but did not gain the rights associated with Israeli citizenship. The city remained under Israeli military rule for more than four decades. The Israeli Civil Administration, established in 1981, was in charge of civilian and day-to-day services such as issuing permission to travel, build, export or import, and host relatives from abroad. The CA reprinted Jordanian textbooks for distribution in schools but did not update them. The CA was in charge of tax collection and land expropriation, which sometimes included Israeli seizure of olive groves that Arab villagers had tended for generations.
According to the Israeli Human Rights activists, the development of Jewish settlements in the Ramallah area, such as Beit El and Psagot, prevented the expansion of the city and cut it off from the surrounding Arab villages. As resistance increased, Ramallah residents who were members of the Palestine Liberation Organization were jailed or deported to neighboring countries. The popular uprising known as the First Intifada erupted in December 1987, protesting against the continued Israeli occupation.
Ramallah residents were among the early joiners of the First Intifada. The Intifada Unified Leadership, an umbrella organization of various Palestinian factions, distributed weekly bulletins on the streets of Ramallah with a schedule of the daily protests, strikes and action against Israeli patrols in the city. At the demonstrations, tires were burned in the street, and the crowds threw stones and Molotov cocktails. The IDF responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Schools in Ramallah were forcibly shut down, and opened gradually for a few hours a day. The Israelis conducted house arrests, imposing curfews that restricted travel and exports in what Palestinians regarded as collective punishment. In response to the closure of schools, residents organized home schooling sessions to help students make up missed material; this became one of the few symbols of civil disobedience. Following the Oslo Accords, the Israeli army abandoned the Mukataa in December 1995 and withdrew to the city outskirts. The newly established Palestinian Authority assumed civilian and security responsibility for the city, which was designated "Area A" under the accords.