Qalandia

Coordinates: 31°51′47″N 35°12′27″E / 31.86306°N 35.20750°E / 31.86306; 35.20750
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Qalandia/Kalandia
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicقلنديا
 • LatinQalandiya (unofficial)
Qalandia Village
Qalandia Village
Qalandia/Kalandia is located in State of Palestine
Qalandia/Kalandia
Qalandia/Kalandia
Location of Qalandia/Kalandia within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°51′47″N 35°12′27″E / 31.86306°N 35.20750°E / 31.86306; 35.20750
Palestine grid169/141
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateJerusalem
Government
 • TypeVillage council
Area
 • Total3,289 dunams (3.3 km2 or 1.3 sq mi)
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Total572
 • Density170/km2 (450/sq mi)
Name meaningKulundia, personal name[2]
The barrier in northern Jerusalem, which confines Kalandia village (in the north) to an enclave under Israeli control.

Qalandia (Arabic: قلنديا, Hebrew: קלנדיה), also Kalandiya, is a Palestinian village located in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, just west from the Jerusalem municipality boundary. The village had a population of 572 residents in 2017.[1] Qalandia is also the name of a refugee camp, established by UNRWA in 1949. It is located just east from Jerusalem municipality. Qalandia refugee camp was built for Palestinians refugees from Lydda, Ramle and Jerusalem of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.[3]

History

In Qalandiya, archaeologists unearthed the remnants of a wine-producing Jewish farm dating back to the Second Temple period. Inhabited during the Hellenistic period until its destruction during the First Jewish–Roman War, the site featured two large structures, a mikveh, and rock-cut industrial facilities. Findings include a plethora of artifacts—hundreds of coins, potsherds, chalk vessels, metal objects, jewelry, and an array of tools. Nearby exploration revealed burial caves, winepresses, cisterns, and quarries.[4][5]

Ancient tombs have been found at Qalandia.[6] A Byzantine bath has been excavated, and pottery from the same period has also been located there.[7][8]

During the Crusader period, it was noted that Qalandia was one of 21 villages given by King Godfrey as a fief to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre.[6][9][10][11] In 1151 the Abbot leased the use of the vineyards and orchards of Qalandia to a Nemes the Syrian and his brother Anthony and their children. In return the convent was given a part of the yearly production from these fields.[12] In 1152 Queen Melisende exchanged villagers whom she owned for shops and two moneychanger counters in Jerusalem. All the names of the Qalandia villagers were Christian, which indicate that Qalandia was a Christian village at the time.[13][14]

Ottoman era

Qalandia, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the Ottoman census of 1596, the village, called Qalandiya, was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Al-Quds which was under the administration of the liwa ("district") of Al-Quds. The village had a population of 15 households, all Muslim, and paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on wheat, barley, olives, beehives and/or goats, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 3,900 akçe.[15]

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village in the Jerusalem District.[16][17]

In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village, which he described as small hamlet consisting of a few houses with fig plantations around them,[18] while an Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed 16 houses and a population of 50, though the population count included only the men.[19][20]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described the village as a "small village on a swell, surrounded by olives, with quarries to the west."[21]

In 1896 the population of Kalandije was estimated to be about 150 persons.[22]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qalandieh (Qalandia) had a population of 144, of which 122 Muslims and 22 Jews.[23] This had decreased in the 1931 census when Qalandiya had an all-Muslim population of 120, in 25 houses.[24]

In the 1945 survey, Qalandia had a population of 190 Muslims,[25] and a land area of 3,940 dunams.[26] 427 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,202 for cereals,[27] while six dunams were built-up.[28]

Qalandia airport

An airstrip to the east of Qalandia was built by the British army in 1925. It was located a few kilometers north of Jerusalem at a site that offered flat terrain in a largely hilly region. In 1936 it was renovated by the Jewish entrepreneur Pinchas Rutenberg and began to be used commercially on a limited basis by Rutenberg’s airline, Palestine Airways, and the British carrier, Imperial Airways.[29]

Until 1927, it was the only airport in Mandatory Palestine, although there were several military airfields. Qalandia was used for prominent guests bound for Jerusalem.[30] It opened for regular flights in 1936.[31]

Jerusalem airport, 1961

After the Six-Day War, it was renamed Atarot Airport by Israel, but closed down due to disturbances related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and because international companies refused to land there.[32] Israel confiscated 639 dunums from Qalandia village in order to establish a military base at the former airport.[33]

1947–1949

During the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, in early January 1948, the residents of Qalandia evacuated the village and moved to Ramallah, leaving a few young men to protect the property and make sure mines were not planted on the way leading to the village and the nearby mine.[34] The villagers returned to the village and after the news of the Deir Yassin massacre arrived the women, the children and most of the men were evacuated again and the village became a post of the Arab Liberation Army[35] In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Qalandia came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

Qalandia refugee camp

The Qalandia refugee camp was established in 1949 by the Red Cross[36] on land leased from Jordan. It covers 353 dunums (0.353 km2; 35.3 ha) as of 2006[37] and has a population of 10,024[38] with 935 structures divided into 8 blocks.[37] Israeli authorities consider it part of Greater Jerusalem, and it remains under their control.[39]

1967-present

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Qalandia has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 2% of Qalandiya’s land was classified as Area B, while the remaining 98% is Area C.[33] Israel has confiscated 574 dunams of land from Qalandiya in order to construct the Israeli industrial settlement Atarot and 639 dunams for the Israeli Qalandiya military base.[33] 1,940 dunums of the village, 59.3% of the village’s total area is isolated behind the Israeli West Bank barrier.[40] In 2006, 1,154 people were living in the village according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.[41]

The Qalandia checkpoint is the main checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem, and is known for frequent demonstrations against the occupation.[42]

The Israeli 2013 Qalandia raid led to clashes with local residents, leaving three of Qalandia's inhabitants dead and several critically wounded.[43]

References

  1. ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  2. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 321
  3. ^ Kalandia Refugee Camp
  4. ^ Magen, Y. (2004). Qalandiya–A Second Temple-period Viticulture and Wine-manufacturing Agricultural Settlement. The Land of Benjamin, 3.
  5. ^ Ariel, D. T. (2004). The Coins from Qalandiya. The Land of Benjamin, 3, 145-177.
  6. ^ a b Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 11
  7. ^ Dauphin, 1998, p. 844
  8. ^ Baramki, 1933, pp. 105-109
  9. ^ de Roziére, 1849, p. 30: Calandria, p.263: Kalendrie, cited in Röhricht, 1893, RRH, pp. 16-17, No 74
  10. ^ Röhricht, 1904, RHH Ad, p. 5, No. 74
  11. ^ Rey, 1883, p. 387
  12. ^ de Roziére, 1849, pp. 159-160, cited in Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 67-68, No. 267
  13. ^ Röhricht, 1893, RHH, pp. 70-71, No 278
  14. ^ Ellenblum, 2003, pp. 235 -236
  15. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 116
  16. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol.3, Appendix 2, p. 122
  17. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, pp. 137, 141, 315
  18. ^ Guérin, 1868, p. 393, Guérin, 1869, p. 6
  19. ^ Socin, 1879, p. 155
  20. ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 127, also noted 16 houses
  21. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp. 10-11
  22. ^ Schick, 1896, p. 121
  23. ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 15
  24. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 42
  25. ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
  26. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 58
  27. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 103
  28. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 153
  29. ^ Palestine Studies, Gateway to the World-The Golden Age of Jerusalem Airport, 1948–67
  30. ^ An Empire in the Holy Land: Historical Geography of the British Administration of Palestine, 1917-1929 Gideon Biger, St. Martin's Press and Magnes Press, New York & Jerusalem, 1994, p. 152
  31. ^ Atarot and the Fate of the Jerusalem Airport
  32. ^ Larry Derfner (January 23, 2001). "An Intifada Casualty Named Atarot". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  33. ^ a b c Qalandiya Village Profile, p. 16, ARIJ
  34. ^ Gelber, 2004, p.139
  35. ^ Gelber, 2004, p.162
  36. ^ Gelber, 2004, p.363
  37. ^ a b Qalandia Refugee Camp Profile Archived 2013-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ^ Kalandia Refugee Camp
  39. ^ United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (date unknown). Where We Work - West Bank - Camp Profiles - Kalandia. "The Israeli authorities consider this area as part of Greater Jerusalem, and the camp was thus excluded from the redeployment phase in 1995. Qalandia camp remains under Israeli control today." Retrieved from http://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank/camp-profiles?field=12&qt-view__camps__camp_profiles_block=3.
  40. ^ Qalandiya Village Profile, p. 17, ARIJ
  41. ^ Projected Mid -Year Population for Jerusalem Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Archived 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
  42. ^ Garcia-Navarro, Lourdes (2012-07-26). Latest Target For Palestinians' Protest? Their Leader. NPR, 26 July 2012. Archived 2014-06-10 at the Wayback Machine
  43. ^ Funerals held for three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops, The Guardian, Monday 26 August 2013

Bibliography

External links