Ramallah

Ramallah (UK: rə-MAL-ə, US: rə-MAH-lə; Arabic: رام الله, romanized: Rām Allāh, IPA: [raːm alˤˈlˤaːh] , locally [rɑːm ˈɑlˤlˤɑh] ; lit. 'God's Height') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine. It serves as the administrative capital of Palestine, as well as capital of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. The city is situated on the Judaean Mountains, 10 km (6 miles) north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of 872 meters (2,861 ft) above sea level, adjacent to al-Bireh. 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...