Tulkarm
Tulkarm | ||
---|---|---|
Hebrew טולכרם | | |
City | ||
• Head of Municipality | Riyad Awad (17 April 2022–) | |
Area | ||
• Total | 28,793 dunams (28.8 km2 or 11.1 sq mi) | |
Population (2017)[1] | ||
• Total | 64,532 | |
• Density | 2,200/km2 (5,800/sq mi) | |
Name meaning | The long (place) of the vineyard.[2] | |
Website | www.tulkarm.org |
Tulkarm or Tulkarem (
Etymology
The
History
It has been suggested that Tulkarm is Birat Soreqah, a place mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud. It has also been identified with Tur Kerem.[7]
Ayyubid and Mamluk periods
During the
The Zaydan would come to politically dominate Tulkarm and the vicinity until the early 17th century. Around 1230, during the late Ayyubid period, a group of
During the Ayyubid, and later the
Ottoman era
Tulkarm was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Afterward, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66) transferred Tulkarm's waqf to the al-Jawhariyya Madrasa (Commons), located in the Muslim Quarter, northwest of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Under this arrangement, Tulkarm's inhabitants paid a third of their harvest as a tax towards the waqf, called qasm. At the time of the waqf's reassignment, the population of the village was estimated at 522 (95 households) and the qasm consisted of eight carats of wheat and three carats of barley. The town's elite families administered the trust, which enabled them to reach higher social and economic status. The population increased through intermarriage with families fleeing violent feuds between the various clans of Jabal Nablus. By 1548, the population had grown significantly to 189 households or roughly 1,040 persons.[8]
In 1596 Tulkarm appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the
In the mid-17th-century most members of the Zaydan family, with the exception of the children and the elderly, were killed in a massacre by Tulkarm's inhabitants during
Tulkarm appears on sheet 45 of Jacotin's map drawn up during Napoleon's invasion in 1799, named Toun Karin.[10][11]
Following the adoption of the Ottoman Land Code in 1858, the musha (collective landownership) system was gradually abrogated and residents were required to register their property with the central authorities. The
The 1860s French explorer Victor Guérin visited Tulkarm, which he described as being of "considerable" size, with about 1,000 inhabitants.[13] During this time, the Ottoman authorities granted the village an agricultural plot of land called Ghabat Tulkarm in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village.[14][15]
In 1882 the Survey of Western Palestine described Tulkarm as a "long straggling village, on high ground", surrounded by arable land and rock. There were several "good-sized" houses, mainly of stone in the village.[16]
Tulkarm became the administrative center of a new subdistrict (
In 1908, the Ottomans turned Tulkarm into a major rail junction on the
British Mandate era
The
In 1920, a road was constructed to connect the town with Netanya on the coast. In order to cope with a significant increase in population and unorganized infrastructural development since the beginning of the 20th century – a civil planning scheme was designed for Tulkarm and its satellite villages of Dhinnaba, Shuweika and Irtah in 1945. At the time Tulkarm was divided into four main sections, with the bulk of commercial activity concentrated along the north–south and east–west roads. Meanwhile, urban sprawl continued to expand past the northern fringes of the town, which had previously been characterized by green spaces.[22]
Tulkarm and its vicinity played major role as a haven and area for Palestinian Arab rebel activity during the
In the 1945 statistics the population of Tulkarm consisted of 8,090; of whom 7,790 were Muslims, 280 Christian and 20 "other",[24] with a land area of 1,672 dunams (urban) and 32,610 dunams (rural), according to an official land and population survey.[25] Of this, 2,399 dunams were designated for citrus and bananas, 276 plantations and irrigable land, 28,256 for cereals,[26] while 1,492 dunams were built-up areas.[27]
Jordanian rule
During the
In 1950, the
Contemporary period
Since the Six-Day War in 1967 Tulkarm has been under Israeli occupation.[21] A military government governed Tulkarm until transfer in 1982 to the Israeli Civil Administration.
During the early months of the
In the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), control of Tulkarm was transferred to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on 10 December 1995, becoming the third Palestinian city from which Israeli forces withdrew.[21] During the early years of the Second Intifada, Israel temporarily reoccupied Tulkarm. Israeli military administration over Tulkarm ended in 2005, when control of the city was handed back to the PNA.[32] Upon assuming control of the city, the PNA instituted new weapons restrictions limiting militants to a single registered weapon that may not be loaded or carried in public.[33]
On 19 October 2023, the IDF
Geography
The city is situated on the western edge of northern West Bank, about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) west of Nablus further southwest of Jenin and 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) east of the Israeli coastal city of Netanya. It is bordered by the 1948 ceasefire line, with Israel's Central and Haifa Districts to the west, and Palestine's Qalqilya and Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorates to the south. Its central location between a plain and a mountain has made it commercially and strategically significant and has had a great impact on its growth. In the past, Tulkarm was a caravan station and a trading center for products from the city's surrounding villages and farms, as well as a point from which armies crossed to Egypt and the Levant (al-Sham).[citation needed]
Tulkarm is at the crossroads of three historically important arteries: A road which runs north from the
Demographics
Year | Type | Population |
---|---|---|
1548 | Census | 1,040[8] |
1596 | Census | 968[8] |
1860s | Estimate | 1,000[13] |
1922 | Census | 3,350[34] |
1931 | Census | 4,540[35] |
1945 | Census | 8,090[24][36] |
1961 | Census | 11,401[37] |
1967 | Census | 20,002[38] |
1997 | Census | 39,805 (with Camp)[39] |
2007 | Census | 61,941[40] |
2017 | Census | 64,532[1] |
According to the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Tulkarm had a population of 3,350 (3,109 Muslims, 208 Christians, 23 Jews, eight Samaritans, one Baha'i, and one Druze).[34] At the time of the 1931 census, Tulkarm had a population of 4,827 (4,540 Muslims, 255 Christians, 18 Jews, six Samaritans, and one Druze) with 541 in nearby suburbs (516 Muslims, 15 Jews, and 10 Christians).[35]
The village statistics of 1938 list Tulkarm's population as 5,700 with 629 in nearby suburbs (including 17 Jews).[41] The village statistics of 1945 list the population as 8,090 (7,790 Muslims, 280 Christians, and 20 "other").[42]
The populations of Tulkarm, Dhinnaba, Shuweika and Irtah steadily increased by an average of 2% annually between 1931 and 1961, with a drastic increase after the 1948 War as the area experienced an influx of Palestinian refugees. The Jews presumably left/fled during the war. Following the 1967 War, the population saw a temporary decrease as some residents fled to Jordan. In the 1967 census by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics the population of Tulkarm city was recorded as 10,255, Tulkarm Camp as 5,020, Dhinnaba as 1,342, Irtah as 925, Shuweika as 2,332 and Khirbet Jarrad as 128, a total of 20,002.[38] Most of the inhabitants were Muslims, although there was a community of 103 Christians according to the census.[43]
In the first census by the
Today the population is almost entirely Muslim. Prior to Israel's occupation of the city in 1967, there were an estimated 1,000 Christians living in Tulkarm, but roughly half of the community emigrated in the aftermath of the war, while most of the remaining Christians gradually emigrated afterward.[45] There are two Christian families who continue to live in Tulkarm,[45] who are part of the same extended family.[46] There is a Greek Orthodox church in the city dedicated to St. George,[45] built in the early 19th century.[46][47] The church is active and opens for visitors.[45]
Climate
The climate of Tulkarm is
Climate data for Tulkarm | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 17.0 (62.6) |
17.5 (63.5) |
19.6 (67.3) |
23.9 (75.0) |
24.2 (75.6) |
28.3 (82.9) |
29.0 (84.2) |
30.0 (86.0) |
27.9 (82.2) |
26.0 (78.8) |
23.0 (73.4) |
19.2 (66.6) |
22.76 (72.97) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 8.9 (48.0) |
8.7 (47.7) |
10.5 (50.9) |
13.6 (56.5) |
17.2 (63.0) |
20.6 (69.1) |
23.0 (73.4) |
23.6 (74.5) |
20.7 (69.3) |
18.5 (65.3) |
14.1 (57.4) |
10.9 (51.6) |
15.54 (59.97) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 124.9 (4.92) |
92.2 (3.63) |
52.8 (2.08) |
23.6 (0.93) |
2.7 (0.11) |
2.8 (0.11) |
2.2 (0.09) |
0.7 (0.03) |
1.2 (0.05) |
28.0 (1.10) |
77.4 (3.05) |
135.5 (5.33) |
538.3 (21.19) |
Average precipitation days | 13.9 | 11.7 | 8.6 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 3.2 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 3.9 | 8.0 | 11.8 | 63.7 |
Source: Israel Meteorological Service[48] |
The rainy season starts in October and continues through May. Between December and February, almost 70% of annual rainfall occurs, while 20% of annual rainfall occurs in October and November. Rain in June and September is rare and comes to negligible amounts. July and August have no rain at all, except for one rainfall of 1.5 millimeters (0.059 in) on July 10, 1995, in Tulkarm city (Tulkarm Agricultural Department). The mean annual rainfall in the city of Tulkarm is 642 millimeters (25.3 in) for the period from 1952 to 1995 (Tulkarm Agricultural Department).
Economy
Prior to the 1948 War, Tulkarm had a major agricultural sector, with grain, olives and fruits, especially watermelons, being the major crops cultivated by in the town's lands.[21]
Education
There are seven high schools in Tulkarm, three for girls (al-Adawiah,[49] Jamal Abd al-Nasser,[49] and Al-Khawaja) and three for boys (al-Fadilia,[50] Ihsan Samara, and Adnan Sefareni) and a vocational school for both genders.
On September 24, 2016, the PA named a school in Tulkarem after Salah Khalaf. Tulkarem governor Issam Abu Bakr said that the school was named after “martyr Salah Khalaf in order to commemorate the memory of this great national fighter”.[51][52]
Culture
The
A Tulkarm amusement park called Mega Land attracts tens of thousands of visitors on Muslim holidays.[54]
Sports
Tulkarm has 2 semi-professional soccer teams;
Notable people
- Sanaa Alsarghali
- Abu Salma (1909–1980)
- Akram Al-Ashqar, film maker
- Ekrem Akurgal, Turkish archaeologist born in 1911 in Tulkarm
- Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinian Israeli-Arab Muslim journalist
- Mar'i al-Karmi (1580–1624)
- Mahmoud Al-Karmi (1889–1939)
- Hasan Karmi (1905–2007)
- Abdul-Ghani Al-Karmi (1906–1974)
- Hilmi Hanoun (1913–2001), long-term mayor of Tulkarm
- Zuhair Al-Karmi (1921–2009)
- Ameen Nayfeh, film maker and writer
- Queen Rania of Jordan
- Bassam Lotfi (1940-2022)
References
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b Palmer, 1881, p. 194
- ISBN 978-1-786-73967-4p.39
- ^ Edward William Lane, An Arabic–English Lexicon, vols 6–8 ed. by Stanley Lane-Poole, 8 vols (London: Williams and Norgate, 1863–93).
- ^ Carta's Official Guid to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. Carta. 1983. p. 446.
- ^ "Environmental Profile for The West Bank Volume 8" (PDF). 2007-02-02. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
- JSTOR 43587090.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l al-Salim, Farid (Autumn 2011). "Landed Property and Elite Conflict in Ottoman Tulkarm" (PDF). Jerusalem Quarterly. 47. Archived from the original on 2012-01-26.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 137
- ^ Palestine Exploration Quarterly Jan-Apr 1944. "Jacotin's Map of Palestine". D.H.Kellner. p. 161.
- ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 170 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Doumani, 1995, p. 54.
- ^ a b Guérin, 1875, pp. 353-354
- ^ Marom, Roy, "The Contribution of Conder's Tent Work in Palestine for the Understanding of Shifting Geographical, Social and Legal Realities in the Sharon during the Late Ottoman Period", in Gurevich D. and Kidron, A. (eds.), Exploring the Holy Land: 150 Years of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Sheffield, UK, Equinox (2019), pp. 212-231
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- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp. 161-162
- ^ Farid Al-Salim (2015). Palestine and the Decline of the Ottoman Empire: Modernization and the Path to Palestinian Statehood. I. B. Tauris. p. 3.
- ^ Thawaba, 2009, p. 31.
- ^ Thawaba, 2009, p. 32.
- ^ a b c Semplici, Andrea and Boccia, Mario. Tulkarm: The Bountiful Mountain. Med Corporation. pp. 3-8.
- ^ a b c d e Fischbach 2005, p. 494.
- ^ Thawaba, 2009, p. 36.
- ISBN 9780520262539.
- ^ a b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 22
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 77
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 128
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 178
- ^ a b Thawaba, 2009, p. 37.
- ^ Thawaba, 2009, p. 38.
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
- ^ Talmor, Ronny (translated by Ralph Mandel) (1990) The Use of Firearms - By the Security Forces in the Occupied Territories. B'Tselem. download pp. 76, 82
- ^ Israel to hand over control of Jericho, Tulkarm in first West Bank transfers to Palestinians
- ^ Israeli troops hand over Tulkarm, bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- ^ a b Barron, 1923, p. 6
- ^ a b Mills, 1932, p. 58
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 77
- ^ Government of Jordan, 1964, p. 13
- ^ a b "Households and Persons, By Residence, Sex, Age And Origin From Israel Territory and Locality" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). 1967.
- ^ a b "Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status". Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved 2008-05-28.. 1997 Census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). 1999.
- ^ a b "Table 26 (Cont.): Localities in the West Bank by Selected Indicators, 2007" (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. 2007. p. 108. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-10.
- ^ Village Statistics (PDF). 1938. p. 34.
- ^ Village Statistics (PDF). 1945. p. 22.
- ^ "The Christians, By Sex and Locality (Only Localities With At Least 20 Christians) Locality" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). 1967.
- ^ "Palestinian Population by Locality, Sex and Age Groups in Years". Archived from the original on February 12, 2012. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). 1997 Census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). 1999. - ^ a b c d "Two Christian families in Tulkarem". Christian Media Center - Custodia Terra Sanctae. 2015-08-31.
- ^ FOX News, Originally published by Associated Press. 2006-09-18.
- Electronic Intifada. 2006-09-17.
- ^ "Averages and Records for Tel Aviv (Precipitation, Temperature and Records [Excluding February and May] written in the page)". Israel Meteorological Service. Archived from the original on 2010-09-14.
- ^ ISBN 9780937694855.
- ^ Srouji, Fathi Sad (June 1986). The Jordanian Food Economy: pPast, Present, and Future Prospects. Cornell University. p. ii.
- ^ "PA governor defends naming school after Black September chief". The Times of Israel.
- ^ "PA: Terrorism is part of our culture". 30 October 2016.
- ^ Karmi, 2004, p. 22.
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Bibliography
- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Doumani, B. (1995). "Rediscovering Palestine, Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900". University of California Press.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - Fischbach, Michael R. (2005) [2000]. "Tulkarm". In Philip Mattar (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Palestinians (Revised ed.). New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 494. ISBN 0-8160-5764-8.
- Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964). First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population (PDF).
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
- Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
- Mills. E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Thawaba, Salem (2009). "Urban growth of a city under siege: Tulkarm, Palestine over the past century". Journal of Planning History. 28: 27–46. S2CID 145142269.
External links
- Welcome To Tulkarm R.C.
- Tulkarem City, Welcome to Palestine
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Al-Salim, Farid. Tulkarm Landed Property and Elite Conflict in Ottoman Tulkarm Jerusalem Quarterly.
- Official website www.tulkarm.org Archived 2022-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
- www.mtulkarm.com