Qalqiliya
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Qalqiliya قلقيلية |
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| Administration : |
 Palestinian Territories
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| Coordinates : | 32 ° 12 ′ N , 34 ° 59 ′ E | ||
| Area : | 25.637 km² | ||
| Residents : | 49,441 (2014) | ||
| Population density : | 1,929 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 2 | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
| Mayor : | Marouf Zahran | ||
| Website : | |||
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Qalqiliya ( Arabic قلقيلية Qalqīliya , sometimes tooقلقيليا Qalqīliyā ; alternatively in German Kalkilia ) is a Palestinian city with about 49,000 inhabitants (2014), of which 35,000 are descendants of refugees, in the northwestern part of the West Bank . It lies on the so-called Green Line , the armistice line of Israel.
history
History until 1967
During the First World War , Qalqiliya received a train station in 1915 when the Ottoman Military Railroad in Palestine drove a narrow-gauge railway south from Maṣʿūdiyya station on the Afula – Nablus line . The British advancing from the south continued their standard-gauge line coming from the Sinai Railway , re - gauging the Ottoman route from Lod to Tulkarm in the direction of Haifa . The Palestinian Railroad operated this railway as its main line Haifa – Qalqiliya – Qantara .
After Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948 as part of the UN partition plan for Palestine , invading Arab armies opened the war for Israel's independence . They fought against each other and the Israeli army to gain ground, with the latter conquering the Palestinian city of Kafr Saba and driving out the local population. The city of Kafr Saba was located between today's Kfar Saba and Qalqiliya. Many of these refugees fled to Qalqiliya.
The Palestinian city of Qalqiliya was captured by Arab forces and the front line was held west of the city. In the armistice agreement of 1949, the warring parties Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria fixed the front as a Green Line with Israel . The war opponents did not make peace, they did not agree on recognized borders, nor did they enter into these cross-border traffic or diplomatic relations. The so closed Green Line separated the now Jordanian city from its train station, which was on the Israeli side.
The city was attacked by the Israeli army in 1956, killing 18 Israelis and wounding another 68. The number of Jordanian soldiers killed was between 80 and 90. In 1967 the city was conquered by the Israeli army and the population displaced, numerous houses were demolished. However, the Israeli army later allowed them to return.
Recent history
Legally, since the Oslo II Agreement of 1995 , Qalqiliya has been in what is known as Zone A, which is exclusively under the control of the Palestinian Authority . However, with the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada , Israel moved back into the city. However, there are plans to return control of Qalqiliya to the Palestinians.
The Israeli barrier , which has been under construction since 2003, runs around Qalqiliya - on Palestinian territory . The latter has the shape of a concrete wall in this area. The barrier encloses the city almost completely, only in the east the only access to Qalqiliya is through an Israeli checkpoint. Qalqiliya is thus cut off from its neighboring towns and from its agricultural land. In 2005, John Dugard mentioned in a report for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that the wall in Qualqilya prevented rainwater from draining away, causing flooding and serious damage. According to the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, citizens of the city petitioned Israel's Supreme Court in October 2010 to secure access to their farmland during the olive harvest; this had been denied them by the Israeli authorities.
City friendship
Web links
Wikinews: Qalqiliya - on the news- UNRWA : Map of the city with the course of the Israeli wall ( memento of April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from July 2004
Individual evidence
- ^ Palestinian Central Statistical Office
- ↑ Benvenisti, Meron, Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta (translator) (2002), Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, ISBN 0-520-23422-7 , ISBN 978-0-520-23422-2 , 376 pages
- ^ Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-827850-0 . Pages 397-399.
- ↑ Elon, Amos (1983). The Israelis: founders and sons. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-016969-0 . Pages 231-232
- ^ Dugard, John: Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, Including Palestine. (PDF) In: Report to the Commission on Human Rights. United Nations , March 3, 2005, accessed June 27, 2006 .
- ^ Residents petition high court to access olive groves. Maan News Agency, accessed October 12, 2010 .