Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
town in the central
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 ...
south of
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
in the
Bethlehem Governorate
The Bethlehem Governorate () is one of 16 governorates of Palestine. It covers an area of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Its principal city and district capital is Bethlehem. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, its pop ...
. Nearby villages include
Hindaza
Hindaza () is a Palestinian village located six kilometers south-east of Bethlehem. The village is in the Bethlehem Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 7,517 i ...
in the north and
Tuqu'
Teqoa (, also spelled Tuquʿ) is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate, located southeast of Bethlehem in the land Samaria And Judah West Bank. The town is built adjacent to the biblical site of Tekoa (; also called Thecoe), now Khirbe ...
to the south. It is situated above sea level. The total land area is 11,901 dunams of which 319 constitute built-up area and 277 have been confiscated by the Israeli government for
settlement
Settlement may refer to:
*Human settlement, a community where people live
*Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation
*Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money
*Settlement (litigatio ...
s and a military base. Much of the remainder is used for
arable land
Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...
.Jannatah Town 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 ...
. 2010. Retrieved on 2012-02-27.
History
In the wake of 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 after the
1949 Armistice Agreements
The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule.
Since 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, Jannatah has been held under
Israeli occupation
Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...
.
According to ARIJ, Israel has confiscated land from Jannatah to construct two Israeli settlements; 409
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 in 1982 for NokdimJannatah Town Profile ARIJ, p. 18 and 222 dunams in 1999 for El David.
After the 1995 accords, 9.4% of the Jannatah's land was classified as Area A, 28.5% as Area B, 54% as
Area C
Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...
, while the remaining 8.1% was classified as "nature reserves".
Jannatah is named after ''Wadi al-Jana'en'' or "Valley of Gardens," the name of the area where the town is located. Jannatah was formed by 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 ...
(PNA) in 1996 with the merger of the villages of al-Iqab, Rakhme,
al-Asakra
Al-Asakra () is a Palestinian village in the Bethlehem Governorate in the south-central West Bank, located 4.5 kilometers southeast of Bethlehem. It is a part of the Jannatah municipality. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistic ...
, Khallet al-Karaneen, Harmala and Abu Nujeim in order to ease the provision of government services and planning for the communities. Since then the town has been governed by a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
consisting of eleven members appointed by the PNA. The current mayor is Mustafa Urooj and his deputy is Ibrahim Abakreh. There are six mosques and five public schools in Jannatah.
On 28 August 2001, 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 ...
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 ...
raided Abu Nujeim, destroyed its water network, uprooted 20 of its olive trees and damaged part of the Abu Nujeim School. That same day, ARIJ reported Israeli soldiers had fired at a livestock pen, killing 15 sheep.
In the 2007 census by 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 ...
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). 2008. Retrieved on 2012-02-27. The principal families are al-'Asakra, az-Zeer, al-Mu'ti, al-Urooj, al-Hreimi, Shawriya, Salahat and at-Tinih. About 60% of the town's labor force work in agriculture, 15% as civil servants and the remainder in the Israeli labor market and trade, service and industry sectors. By 2017, the population was 7,336.
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 ...