Al-Ram A-Ram Er-Ram | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | الرّام |
| • Latin | al-Ramm (official) al-Ram (unofficial) |
 Al-Ram behind the separation barrier | |
  Al-Ram A-Ram Er-Ram Location of Al-Ram withinPalestine | |
| Coordinates:31°51′13″N35°14′00″E / 31.85361°N 35.23333°E /31.85361; 35.23333 | |
| Palestine grid | 172/140 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Quds |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality |
| Area | |
• Total | 3.3 km2 (1.3 sq mi) |
| Population (2017)[1] | |
• Total | 15,814 |
| • Density | 4,800/km2 (12,000/sq mi) |
| Name meaning | FromHebrewRamah, "The Hill". In Arabic: "Stagnant water"[2] |
Al-Ram (Arabic:الرّام), also transcribed asAl-Ramm,El-Ram,Er-Ram, andA-Ram, is aPalestinian town which lies northeast ofJerusalem, just outside the city's municipal border. The village is part of the built-up urban area of Jerusalem, theAtarot industrial zone andBeit Hanina lie to the west, andNeve Yaakov borders it on the south,[3] with a built-up area of 3,289dunums. According to thePalestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, a-Ram had a population of 15,814 in 2017.[1] The head of A-Ram's village council estimates that 58,000 people live there, more than half of them holdingIsraeli identity cards.[4]
Al-Ram identified withRamah in Benjamin, a town mentioned multiple times in theBible.[5][6][7][8] Archeological evidence shows that the town was heavily populated during theIron Age II, declined during thePersian period, and later revived during theHellenistic period.[9]
Ossuaries dated to the first century BC and CE were discovered at Al-Ram bearingHebrew inscriptions with names such asMiriam,Yehohanan, andShimon ben Zekhariya.[10]
InCrusader sources, Al-Ram was namedAram, Haram, Rama, Ramatha, Ramitta, orRamathes.[11] Al-Ram was one of 21 villages given byGodfrey of Bouillon (r. 1099–1100) as afief to theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre.[12][13] All the inhabitants of the village who were mentioned in Crusader sources between 1152 and 1160 had names which imply they were Christian.[14][15] The village was mentioned around 1161, when a dispute about a land boundary was settled.[15][16]
In 1517, the village became part of theOttoman Empire along withthe rest of Palestine. In the 1596tax records, it appeared asRama, located in theNahiya of Jabal Quds of theLiwa ofAl-Quds. The population was 28 households, allMuslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, includingwheat,barley,olive trees andvineyards, in addition to occasional revenues,goats andbeehives; a total of 4700akçe.[17]
In 1838,Edward Robinson found the village to be very poor and small, but large stones and scattered columns indicated that it had previously been an important place.[5] In 1870 the French explorerVictor Guérin found the village to have 200 inhabitants,[18] while an Ottoman village list of about the same year showed that Er-Ram had 32 houses and a population of 120, though the population count included men only.[19][20]
In 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described Er-Ram as a "small village in a conspicuous position on the top of a white hill, with olives. It has awell to the south. [..] The houses are of stone, partly built of old material".[21]"West of the village is a good birkeh with a pointedvault; lower down the hill a pillar-shaft broken in two, probably from the church. On the hill arecisterns.Drafted stones are used up in the village walls. At Khan-er-Ram, by the main road, is aquarry with half-finished blocks still in it, and two cisterns. TheKhan appears to be quite modern, and is in ruins. There are extensive quarries on the hill-sides near it."[22]
In 1896, the population of Er-Ram was estimated to be about 240 persons.[23]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, Al-Ram had a population of 208, all Muslims.[24] This had increased in the1931 census to 262, still all Muslim, in 51 houses.[25] Al-Ram suffered badly in the1927 earthquake, with old walls collapsing.[26]
In asurvey in 1945, Al-Ram had a population of 350, all Muslims,[27] and a total land area of 5,598dunams.[28] 441 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,291 for cereals,[29] while 14 dunams were built-up area.[30]
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In the wake of the1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the1949 Armistice Agreements, Al-Ram came underJordanian rule.
In 1961, the population of Al-Ram was 769.[31]
Since theSix-Day War in 1967, Al-Ram has been underIsraeli occupation.
The population in a 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 860, 86 of whom originated from the Israeli territory.[32]
According toARIJ, after the1995 accords, 33.2% (or about ~2,226 dunums) of Al-Ram's land is classified asArea B land, while the remaining 66.8% (~4,482 dunums) was defined asArea C.[33] Israel has confiscated land from Al-Ram in order to build twoIsraeli settlement/Industrial parks:
In 2006, theIsraeli High Court rejected three petitions objecting to the construction of a security barrier separating Al-Ram from Jerusalem.[35] The route of the fence planned to encircle northern Jerusalem has been revised several times. The latest plan, effectively implemented, called for a "minimalist" route following the municipal boundary at a distance of several hundred meters. This has left the town of Al-Ram almost entirely outside of the fence, with the exception of the southern part of the town, called Dahiyat al-Barid.[36][37]
TheSurvey of Western Palestine mentions that Dr. Chaplin, who had visited er-Ram with an interest for archaeological remains, had "a very curious stone mask... in his possession, obtained from the village. It represents a human face without hair or beard, the nose well-cut, the eyes and mouth very feebly designed. The mask is hollowed out behind, and has two deep holes at the back as if to fix it to a wall. It is over a foot in longer diameter, and curiously resembles some of the faces of the Moabite collection ofMr. Shapira. There cannot well be any question of its genuine character, and nothing like it has been found, so far as I know, in Palestine."[22][38] By 2018, a total of 15 such stone masks from thePre-Pottery Neolithic B period have been discovered in theSouthern Levant, one known to have had been bought in the late 19th century from villagers in Er-Ram and now kept at thePalestine Exploration Fund in London.[39]
Dr Thomas J. Chaplin (1830–1904) was the director of theLondon Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews' ownBritish Hospital for the Jews in Jerusalem for some 25 years.[40]
Two Crusader structures have been identified in the town.
Archaeologists have identified the ruins of a Crusader courtyard building developed from an initialtower, as thegrange of aFrankish new town founded by 1160.[41]
The former (old)mosque of Al-Ram was once a Crusader parishchurch.[15][42][dubious –discuss]
In 1838, Robinson noted that "A small mosk with columns seems once to have been a church".[5]
In 1870, Guérin described "a mosque, replacing a former Christian church, of which it occupies the choir; the inhabitants venerate there the memory of Shaykh Hasen. The columns of this sanctuary come from the church."[43]
In 1881, LieutenantConder reported: "At the shrine which is so conspicuous near this village are remains of a former chapel. The lintel stone (as it would seem), with a bas-relief of rosettes, has been found by Dr. Chaplin within the building."[22][38]
In 1883,SWP noted that "west of the village is theMukam of Sheik Hasein, once a small Christianbasilica". It further described it as "The remains of the northaisle 6 feet 8 inches wide, are marked by fourcolumns 2 feet in diameter. The chamber of the saint's tomb occupies part of thenave, and into its north wall thelintel of the old door is built, a stone 10 feet long, half of which is visible, with designs as shown. In the courtyard east of this chamber is an old well of good water and a fine mulberry-tree. In the west wall of the Mukam other stones, with discs in low relief, are built in."[22]
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| Subdistrict | Jerusalem J1(Territories ofEast Jerusalem unilaterally annexed byIsrael in itsJerusalem Municipality) |  |
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| Cities | ||
| Municipalities | ||
| Villages | ||
| Refugee camps | ||
