Askar () is a

Palestinian refugee camp Palestinian refugee camps were first established to accommodate Palestinians who were displaced by the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight during the 1948 Palestine war. Camps were established by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UN ...

. It is located on the outskirts of the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

city of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

and was established in 1950 on 119 dunums of land. Residents of the camp refer to this as “New Askar”.

History

Ancient period

Askar is identified with Ein Sukkar, an ancient settlement featured in the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, as well as in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. Thanks to its fertility, the Ein Sukkar Valley is mentioned in

Rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

as a place from which the grain was brought as a

wave offering The omer offering (''korban omer''), or the sheaf offering, was an Sacrifice, offering (''korban'') made by the Jewish priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. The offering consisted of one Omer (unit), omer of freshly harvested grain, and was waved ...

to the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

when no barley was found in a place closer to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. In later years, a

Samaritan Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...

settlement was established on the site; according to ancient Samaritan writings, the town was inhabited by

Samaritan High Priest The Samaritan High Priest (in Samaritan Hebrew: ''haKa’en haGadol''; ) is the High Priest (in Modern Israeli Hebrew'': haKohen haGadol'') of the Samaritan community in the Holy Land, who call themselves the Israelite Samaritans. According to ...

s. A Samaritan

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

, still in use during the fourth century CE, was found at the site. The name Askar preserves the ancient name of Ein Sukkar. Schenke believed that Askar was first settled during the early

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. However, Campbell dated the settlement to the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

Modern history

During the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

and 2002

Operation Defensive Shield Operation Defensive Shield ( ) was a 2002 Israeli military operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada. Lasting for just over a month, it was the largest combat operation in the territory since the 1967 Arab–Israe ...

, camps such as Askar were a source of considerable activity from Palestinian militants. IDF incursions are still common in Askar refugee camp and are generally conducted for the purposes of interrogating individuals or arresting suspected militants who Israeli authorities consider to be affiliated with listed

terrorist organisations Several national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and former ...

. The

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fl ...

has several installations in Askar refugee camp including schools and health clinics. In addition to these, the camp has several of its own community centers including the Center of Peace and Development located in New Askar. International volunteer work camps are run at the center annually which are hosted by the

An-Najah National University An-Najah National University () is a non-governmental public university governed by a board of trustees in Nablus, West Bank, Palestine. The university has 22,000 students and 300 professors in 19 faculties. It is the largest university in the ...

. According to the PCBC, the population of the camp is 11,304.

References

External links

Welcome To 'Askar R.C. Askar

UNWRA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a United Nations System, UN agency that supports the relief and Human development (economics), human development of Palestinian refugee ...

Nablus City Profile

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

, ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Nablus
ARIJ Populated places established in 1950 1950 establishments in the West Bank Governorate Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank Nablus Governorate Ancient Samaritan settlements Nablus in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict {{Palestine-geo-stub