Umm ar-Rehan (, meaning "Mother of Basil"; also transliterated Umm Rihan or Um al-Rehan) is a

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 ...

village of 447 inhabitants located high on the northwestern hills of the

Jenin Governorate The Jenin Governorate () is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. It covers the northern extremity of the West Bank, including the area around the city of Jenin, which is the district capital or ''muhfaza'' of the district. According to the Pale ...

of the

State of 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 ...

, from

Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...

. It is one of a number of Palestinian villages that are now located within

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

s in the

Seam Zone Seam Zone () is a term used to refer to a land area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank located east of the Green Line and west of Israel's separation barrier, populated largely by Israelis in settlements such as Alfei Menashe, Ariel, Beit A ...

Umm al-Rehan is one of seven villages that form part of the Barta'a enclave, which is named for the enclave's largest town: eastern

Barta'a Barta'a (Hebrew: בַּרְטַּעָה) is an Arab village located in the northern triangle area and Nahal Iron, which is split by the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank. This division resulted in the separation of the village int ...

(pop. 3,500).

History

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kh. Umm Al-Rihan had a population of 26, all Muslims. The wood near the village is the site of a memorial to early Palestinian militant leader

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (; 1881 or 19 December 1882 – 20 November 1935) was a Syrian Muslim preacher and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant and an opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s. Qassam was born in ...

of the

Black Hand Black Hand or The Black Hand may refer to: Extortionists and underground groups * Black Hand (), 1919–1924 Mexican-American raiders of the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant * Black Hand (anarchism) (), a presumed secret, anarchist organization based ...

, killed in a gunfight with the British

Palestine Police Force The Palestine Police Force (, ) was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from ...

. In the 1945 statistics, the population of Umm ar-Rihan was counted with that of

Ya'bad Ya'bad () is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, 20 kilometers west of Jenin, in the Jenin Governorate of Palestine. It is a major agricultural town, with most of its land covered with olive groves and grain fields. According to the Pa ...

, in an official land and population survey.Department of Statistics, 1945, p
17
/ref> Under the 1947 United Nations partition plan for Palestine, Umm ar-Rehan was to form part of an Arab

Palestinian state Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as th ...

Post 1948

After the

1948 Arab-Israeli war Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

, Umm ar-Rehan fell under ''de facto'' Jordanian rule like other towns and villages in the West Bank, and since the 1967

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 ...

, Umm ar-Rihan has been 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 ...

. On August 27, 1998, the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) used bulldozers to uproot thousands of fruits trees on tens of dunums of land belonging to Umm ar-Rehan and az-Zawiya villages to prepare the ground for the construction of two new settlements. On October 10, 2000, more land belonging to Umm ar-Rehan was bulldozed to expand the

Shaked Shaked (, ''lit.'' Almond) is a secular Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank. Located near the Green Line (Israel), Green Line, it is organized as a community settlement (Israel), community settlement and falls under the jurisdiction of ...

and Hinnanit settlements. In the months following the outbreak of 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 checkpoints were erected on the eastern and southern roads to nearby Tura al-Gharbiya and

, limiting access to the rest 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 ...

; the checkpoints were preserved as crossings in 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 ...

. Umm ar-Rehan's location in area east of the Green Line and west of the

is often referred to as the "

Present-day

Umm ar-Rehan is under 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 ...

's civil administration as per the

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 ...

. There is one primary school run by the PNA, but no secondary school, clinic or other medical facilities. Um ar-Rehan residents can access the clinic in Barta'a Sharqiyya by way of an unpaved road. The 4,700 people who live in the Barta'a area enclave depend on this government clinic which has a pharmacy and also offers counseling on health awareness, but lacks medical specialists, laboratory testing and family planning services. The main terminal to enter and exit the Barta'a Sharqiya-Um ar-Rehan enclave is Imreiha (Reikhan). In November 2004, it was open between 6am and 10am to Palestinians with green permits only. In August 2006, it was open between 7am and 9am between which times Israeli goods and produce enter the enclave area. Produce from the village for export to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

is sent out only with prior coordination with the Israeli authorities. On 30 April 2004, armed

Israeli settler 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 Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...

s entered the village and fired shots in the air before briefly taking over the primary school. They threatened to "expel" the Palestinians, urging them to go to nearby Ya'bad on the other side of the separation barrier. An official from the Education Ministry of the

and villager Faruat Zaid said they tried to contact the IDF about the raid, but there had been no response. Both the IDF and police said they had been unaware of the incident.

Archaeology

Pottery remains from the

Hellenistic 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 ...

and the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

eras have been found here.Zertal, 2016, pp
164
168 In

times, the town of Umm ar-Rehan covered an area of 36-40 hectares, consisting of approximately a hundred houses, a road system, and a Roman bathhouse. Archaeological artifacts dating back to

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

times have also been uncovered here. In 1882, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' described the place as having "traces of ruins; drafted stones of good sized masonry .West of it in the valley is a ruined watchtower";Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
64
/ref> however, it is not clear that the PEF ever visited the site. The site was partially excavated by Zeev Yeivin in 1969, discovering a mausoleum with crypt graves, containing two decorated sarcophagi and 3rd-century pottery. A

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

team led by Shimon Dar performed a larger survey in 1986, mapping hundreds of roads, cisterns, silos, homes, defensive structures, towers, oil presses, and reservoirs. Dar et al. concluded that:

A. The beginning of the settlement in the area was in the 7th–6th centuries BCE. During this period two farms were built; the site itself was not yet settled, but the agricultural areas were exploited… B. During the Persian Period the settlement itself was founded and cultivation of the surrounding lands commenced... C. During the Hellenistic Period the settlement continued its development...and the agricultural roads were built. D. ... During the Early Roman Period the peaceful growth of the site and building of the farms continued. E. During the 3rd century CE the settlement was abandoned. We have no reasonable explanation for its abandonment...

Silos and/or homes for agricultural laborers were found nearby by Eyal Maharian in 1998. In March 2024 the site was completely destroyed and overpaved by locals. The

Israeli Civil Administration The Civil Administration (, '; ) is the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank. It was established by the government of Israel in 1981, in order to carry out practical bureaucratic functions within the Israeli Military Governorate ...

announced that it had arrested perpetrators and expected to charge them shortly.

Environment

A 2,500 ha in the vicinity of the village, the Um Al-Reehan Nature Reserve, encompassing mainly remnant forested land, has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports a resident population of

Egyptian vulture The Egyptian vulture (''Neophron percnopterus''), also called the white scavenger vulture or pharaoh's chicken, is a small Old World vulture in the monotypic genus ''Neophron''. It is widely distributed from the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Kh. Umm al-Rihan
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8
IAAWikimedia commons

Google map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Umm Ar-Rehan Seam Zone Jenin Governorate Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine Important Bird Areas of Palestine