Ramallah

Ramallah has buildings containing masonry from the period of Herod the Great, but no complete building predates the Crusades of the 11th century. In the 14th century, during Mamluk rule (1260–1516), Ramallah was a mixed Christian and Muslim village whose residents engaged in orchard farming and whose revenues belonged to an endowment for the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. It declined toward the end of Mamluk rule, but was resettled in the early 16th century, at first by small numbers of local Muslims then in significant numbers by Christians from Palestine and Transjordan. The local tradition ascribes modern Ramallah's founding at this time by the Hadaddin, Arab Christians who claimed descent from the Ghassanids, which partially correlates with official Ottoman records. Its lands remained endowed through the late 19th century, though by then for the Dome of the Rock.

Palestine came under British rule in 1920 and Ramallah's economy and status improved during this period. 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 since then. 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

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 (37–4 BCE). Potsherds from the Crusader/Ayyubid and early Ottoman period have also been found there. Ramallah was mentioned as collateral of an 1186 agreement between Guy of Lusignan and the hospital in Jerusalem. In a Crusader-period manuscript from 1198, Ramallah was identified as Ramalie, a farming settlement in the environs of Jerusalem. 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.

Mamluk period

Ramallah, along with many other villages in its vicinity, is mentioned in a corpus of waqf (endowment) documents stored in Jerusalem dating to the first decade of the 14th century, during Mamluk rule in Palestine (1260–1516). The waqf was most likely established by Sultan Qalawun in c. 1280. While some of the villages' agricultural output was earmarked for the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) of Jerusalem, Ramallah's revenues were for the benefit of the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) of Hebron. The document concerning Ramallah was an acknowledgement by twelve of the village's fellahin (peasants) of their mutually guaranteed and equally shared obligation to pay 950 dirhams for the Hebron waqf from the sale revenues of their apples, olives and cotton; the villagers also cultivated grain and vetch. Ramallah's reliance on orchard farming distinguished it from many of the other villages named in the waqf corpus (all located in its environs or in the Hebron area) and implies there was a greater degree of investment and private ownership by Ramallah's residents. The names of the villagers shows a mixed population of Muslims and Christians, with historian Yossef Rapoport speculating Ramallah had a Christian-majority population at the time. Ramallah was referenced as the eastern boundary of Ein Qiniya in a 1330 waqf designated by the Mamluk viceroy of Syria, Tankiz, for the Tankiziyya Madrasa of Jerusalem. The waning years of Mamluk rule were characterized economic and political upheaval and Ramallah may have been deserted during this period.

Ottoman period

The area of Ramallah was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1516 with all of Palestine. A 1525 Ottoman tax register confirms Ramallah's revenues as earmarked for the Ibrahimi Mosque waqf but lists it as an uninhabited farm. Ottoman tax registers from 1531 to 1532 and 1538 and Jerusalem court records from 1541 and 1548 all indicate Ramallah was resettled by this period, its revenues divided between waqfs for the Dome of the Rock, the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Tankiziyya Madrasa. Its population consisted of a few Muslim families, including the Labud from Ein Qiniya and Abu al-Thanaya.

Christian families began settling Ramallah in significant numbers by the mid-16th century, as evidenced by Ottoman tax registers and oral traditions among Ramallah's Christians. The tax register of 1553–1554 showed the Christian village of Beit Jala swelled with new residents referred to as the 'Christian Kasabra group', while the 1562 register shows that many from the Kasabra and 27 other households and eight Christian bachelors relocated from Beit Jala to Ramallah by that time. There, they joined the ten Muslim families still living in the village, including the Labud. The 1562 record also shows an increase in tax revenue, all of which emanated from wheat and barley and one quarter of which was designated for the waqf. The 'Kasabra group' referred to Christians from the region of Karak in modern southern Jordan who migrated to the area of al-Kusbar in the Hebron hill country near the village of Nuba sometime after 1539 before moving to localities across Palestine. A 1561 Jerusalem court document shows responsibility for cultivating Ramallah's waqf lands was split into three tracts, one to the Labud and Abu al-Thanaya families, one to the Kasabra Christians led by Ghunaym ibn Salim and one to other Christians, presumably not belonging to the Kasabra.

The Christian migration from Karak to Ramallah, as traced in the 16th-century tax records, largely correlate with the local traditions of Ramallah's history. This tradition attributes Ramallah's founding by five sons of Rashid ibn Saqr al-Haddadin. According to local historian Khalil Abu Rayya, the Haddadin (Arabic for 'blacksmiths') originated in the village of Ma'in near Madaba in the general vicinity of Karak, and the British orientalist Frederick Peake noted the Haddadin were one of the oldest Christian clans of Karak, claiming descent from the Ghassanids, an ancient/medieval Arab Christian tribal confederation. The local tradition of Ramallah holds the Haddadin first migrated to Halhul for several months then to Beit Jala and ultimately to Ramallah, with Halhul likely corresponding to al-Kusbar (which was located in Halhul's environs). Likewise, names of the Kasabra Christians recorded in the tax registers correspond to the local tradition. In 1596, the last known Ottoman tax register of Palestinian villages until the 19th century, Ramallah was listed as a village in the nahiya of Quds (Jerusalem), part of the Liwa of Quds with 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 the 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 (consisting primarily of landowners and merchants) 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 (particularly Hebron) buying the homes and land the émigrés left behind.

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, who remained Jordanian citizens until 1988. 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 (CA), 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.

Palestinian Authority control

The years between 1993 and 2000 (known locally as the "Oslo Years") brought relative prosperity to Ramallah. Ramallah and its immediate environs were classified as Area A in the Oslo Accords, under full civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) administration in September 1995. Many expatriates returned to establish businesses there, and the atmosphere was one of optimism. In 2000, unemployment began to rise and the economy of Ramallah declined. The Israel Defense Forces remained in control of the territories and its government did not restore the freedom of movement enjoyed by Ramallah residents prior to the first Intifada. Travel to Jerusalem required special permits. The number and size of Israeli settlements around Ramallah increased dramatically. A network of bypass roads for use of Israeli citizens only was built around Ramallah, and Israel expropriated land for settlements. Many official documents previously handled by the Israeli Civil Administration were now handled by the Palestinian Authority but still required Israeli approval. A Palestinian passport issued to Ramallah residents was not valid unless the serial number was registered with the Israeli authorities, who controlled border crossings.

The failure of the Camp David summit in July 2000 led to the outbreak of the Second Intifada (al-Aqsa Intifada) in September 2000. Young Ramallah residents demonstrated daily against the Israeli army, with marches to the Israeli checkpoints at the outskirts of the city. Over time, the marches were replaced by sporadic use of live ammunition against Israeli soldiers; and various attacks targeting Jewish settlers, particularly on the Israeli-only bypass roads. Army checkpoints were established to restrict movement in and out of Ramallah. On October 12, 2000, two Israeli army reservists, Vadim Norzhich and Yosef Avrahami were lynched in Ramallah. They had taken a wrong turn, and were set upon by a mob, enraged in particular by the Muhammad al-Durrah incident in Gaza. A frenzied crowd killed the two IDF reservists, mutilated their bodies, and dragged them through the streets. Later that afternoon, the Israeli army carried out an air strike on Ramallah, demolishing the police station. Israel later succeeded in capturing and prosecuting some of those involved in the deaths of the reservists.

The IDF has occasionally operated inside Ramallah, in breach of the 1995 Oslo Accords. The first and largest incursion was the 2002 Operation Defensive Shield, with a more recent intervention coming in March 2017 while attempting to arrest a suspected terrorist. In 2002, the army imposed curfews, electricity cuts, school closures and disruptions of commercial life. Many Ramallah institutions, including government ministries, were vandalized, and equipment was destroyed or stolen. The IDF took over local Ramallah television stations, and social and economic conditions deteriorated. Many expatriates left, as did many other Palestinians who complained that the living conditions had become intolerable. Construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier has added to Ramallah's isolation. Yasser Arafat established his West Bank headquarters, the Mukataa, in Ramallah. Although considered an interim solution, Ramallah became the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, now officially known as the State of Palestine. It hosts almost all governmental headquarters. In December 2001, Arafat held meetings at the Mukataa, but lived with his wife and daughter in Gaza City. After suicide bombings in Haifa, Arafat was confined to the Ramallah compound. In 2002, the compound was partly demolished by the Israeli Defense Forces and Arafat's building was cut off from the rest of the compound. On November 11, 2004, Arafat died at the Percy training hospital of the Armies near Paris. He was buried in the courtyard of the Mukataa on November 12, 2004. The site still serves as the Ramallah headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, as well the official West Bank office of Mahmoud Abbas. Throughout 2005, while the Disengagement Plan was underway, some US government officials suggested to the Palestinian leadership to move the provisional capital back to Gaza, where it had been when the Palestinian Authority was first established in 1994. President Abbas, however, refrained from doing so, arguing that at this point, it was important to keep the administrative center in the West Bank in order to remind the international community that the West Bank was still awaiting a territorial solution.

In December 2005, local elections were held in Ramallah in which candidates from three different factions competed for a four-year term on the fifteen-seat municipal council. The council elected Janet Mikhail as mayor, the first woman to hold the post.

Munir Hamdan, a member of Fatah and a Ramallah businessman, discussed the concentration of government offices with a journalist. He said, "The president and prime minister have their offices here. So do the parliament and all the government ministries", representing a "collusion" between the Palestinian Authority and Israel to turn Ramallah into the political as well as the financial capital of the Palestinians. He is particularly worried by the construction of a large new governmental complex by the PA. Hatem Abdel Kader, a Jerusalem resident, Fatah legislator and former Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, complained that "If they are building a new government compound here, that means they have no plans to be based in Jerusalem... Unfortunately, the Palestinian government of Salam Fayyad has abandoned Jerusalem in favor of Ramallah." In November 2011, King Abdullah II of Jordan visited Ramallah for the first time since 2000.