Qalqilya or Qalqiliya () is a city in 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 ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, which serves as the administrative center of the

Qalqilya Governorate The Qalqilya Governorate or Qalqiliya Governorate () is an administrative area of Palestine in the northwestern West Bank. Its capital or ''muhfaza'' (seat) is the city of Qalqilya that borders the Green Line. History During the Ottoman pe ...

. The city had a population of 51,683 in 2017. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank wall, 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 The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

(as part of Area A), while remaining under Israeli military occupation.

Etymology

According to

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

, the name came from "a type of

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punica, Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have o ...

", or "gurgling of water".Palmer, 1881, p
183
/ref> 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

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite term which means "rounded stones or hills".

History

The vicinity of Qalqilya has been populated since

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

times, as attested to by the discovery of prehistoric

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

tools.

Ottoman period

Qalqilya appeared in Ottoman tax registers (transliterated as ''Qalqili'') in 1596, as a village in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (subdistrict) of Bani Sa'b in the '' Liwa'' 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 ...

. It paid a total of 3,910 akçe in taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 140 Edward Robinson described ''Kulakilieh'' in 1838 as a village in ''Beni Sa'ab'' district, west of Nablus. An Ottoman census listed the village in the ''

'' (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b, in . Qalqilya was described in 1882 as "a large somewhat straggling village, with

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

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> Residents from nearby

Baqat al-Hatab Baqat al-Hatab () is a village in the Qalqilya Governorate, Palestine in the western area of the West Bank, located 20 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 1,9 ...

move to the city in 1883, and a municipal council to administer Qalqilya was established in 1909.

British Mandate period

An official land survey recorded 27,915

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land owned in 1945. 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. According to Sami Hadawi, the town had been "one of the most prosperous in Palestine, owning extensive orange groves and serving as one of the main vegetable markets of the country."Hadawi, Sami. ''Bitter Harvest: Palestine between 1914-1979.'' Revised edition. New York: The Caravan Books, 1979, 109.

1948 War

During the war, many inhabitants from Kafr Saba, Abu Kishk, Miska, Biyar 'Adas and Shaykh Muwannis resettled in Qalqilya. Residents of Qalqilya who left during the fighting returned with the arrival of the Jordanian Arab Legion and the Iraqi expeditionary force, apart from 2,000 upper-class residents who settled in

for economic reasons. Hadawi claims that the armistice lines established in 1949 "severed all alqilya'sorange groves in favour of Israel," leaving the town "landless except for its rocky areas towards the east."

Jordanian occupation

After the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,occupied by Jordan in 1950. On the night of 10 October 1956, the

Israeli army The Israeli Ground Forces () are the Army, ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the GOC Army Headquarters, General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of the Gen ...

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 (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

and involved several thousand soldiers. During the fighting, a paratroop company was surrounded by Jordanian troops and escaped under close air-cover from four

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

aircraft. Eighteen Israelis and 70 to 90 Jordanians were killed in the operation.

Post 1967

In the wake of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 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, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Qalqilya came under Israeli rule. Dozens of inhabitants were expelled to

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

as part of the Palestinian expulsions of 1967 known as the Naksa. 850 buildings were razed. In his memoirs,

wrote that these actions ultimately constituted "

collective punishment Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group or whole community for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member or some members of that group or area, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends a ...

" which was contrary to government policy. The villagers were eventually allowed to return and the reconstruction of damaged houses was financed by the military authorities. As part of the 1993

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

between Israel and the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO), control of Qalqilya was transferred to the

(PNA) on 17 December 1995. In 2003, the

Israeli West Bank barrier The West Bank barrier, West Bank wall or the West Bank separation barrier, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line (Israel), Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. Israel describes the wall as a necessary securi ...

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 The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

militants active in the city. On 20 October 2017, the municipality of Qalqilya named a street after

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

and erected a memorial with his likeness. 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". On 19 June 2022, a 53-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces as he sought to cross the

, which encircles Qalqilya. According to the IDF, he damaged the security fence in an attempt to cross into Israeli territory. It's unclear whether he was armed. On 22 June 2024, a 60-year-old Israeli citizen was shot dead in Qalqilya by local residents. The victim, from Petah Tikva, regularly bought vegetables in the city. Following the shooting, his car was set on fire, and his personal documents were taken. This incident was the third in Qalqilya within 48 hours, following another attack on Thursday, where a 70-year-old Israeli was killed, and the elimination of two Islamic Jihad operatives who planned an attack.

Geography

Qalqilya is located in the northwestern

, straddling the border with Israel. It is 16 kilometers southwest of the Palestinian city of

Tulkarm Tulkarm or Tulkarem (, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the West Bank, the capital of the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian territories, Palestinia ...

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

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Alfei Menashe Alfei Menashe (, , ''lit.'' Thousands of Tribe of Manasseh, Manasseh) is an Israeli settlement on the western edge of the central West Bank. Built over land confiscated from the nearby State of Palestine, Palestinian villages of Nabi Ilyas, Azzun ...

to the southwest, and the Palestinian village Habla and Arab-Israeli town of Jaljuliya to the south. It contains the point in the West Bank closest to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, with about 14 km to the coast at Shefayim. The average annual rainfall 587.4 millimeters and the average annual temperature is 19 degrees Celsius.

Demographics

It had a population of 13 Muslim households, according to an Ottoman census in 1596.

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

found a population of 200 in 1870. The British Mandate authorities conducted a census in 1922, which found that Qalqilya had a population of 2,803 (2,794 Muslims and 9 Christians),Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p.
27
/ref>. The population was 3,867 (3,855 Muslims and 12 Christians), in a total of 796 houses, according to the 1931 census.Mills, 1932, p
56
/ref> The population was listed at 4,503 (including 4 Jews) in the 1938 census. The population of Qalqilya was 5,850 (5,840 Muslims and 10 Christians, according to the 1945 census.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
21
/ref>) The population of Qalqilya was 11,401, according to a Jordanian census in 1961. A census in September 1967 found 8,922 persons, of whom 1,837 were originally from Israeli territory. The

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

(PCBS) census recorded Qalqilya's population to be 22,168 in 1997. The majority of the inhabitants (69.8%) were Palestinian refugees or their descendants.. 1997 Census.

(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

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 ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is 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

and in

, 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 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 Um Tareq'' (سوق أم طارق) * ''Souq Abu Aisha'' (سوق أبو عيشة)

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). 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 (; ), 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 ...

. 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.

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 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 ...

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 المثقفين الخيرية) played a role in publicizing the residents' economic and political problems due to the occupation, the wall, and settlements.

Sister cities

Qalqilya's

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...

are: * Gainesville, Florida *

Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is ho ...

, Germany

Notable people

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

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

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

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

* Najm al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qalqili, 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 The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

. 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 (1870–1957), a religious orator (khatib خطيب) and reformer * Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Shanti (Qalqilya, 1927–

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, 2018), a writer and journalist * Hashem El-Seba (1912–1957), a Palestinian militant * Muayad Afaneh, (born 1975), prepared an analytical paper on the political, economic and social situation of Qalqilya Governorate

Gallery

File:Qalqilya 1942.jpg, Qalqilya in 1942 (1:20,000 scale) File:Jit, Qalqilya 01.jpg, Jit, a neighborhood of Qalqilya File:UNRWA Hospital 001.jpg,

Hospital building in Qalqilya File:Qalqilyafarmer.jpg, alt=, Farmer in Qalqiliya File:ثمار الجوافة من مدينة قلقيلية.jpg,

Guava Guava ( ), also known as the 'guava-pear', is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava '' Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), nativ ...

after being picked from a

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

in Qalqilya

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