Qalunya - قالونيا: Qalunya Village – Jerusalem

Qalunya Village – Jerusalem
Qalunya (Arabic قالونيا) is located approximately six kilometres north-west of the city of Jerusalem, at an average height of 650 meters above sea level. The village is placed on the historical Canaanite area known as “Motza” which means exit. The name “Qalunya” has its origins in the Latin word “Cologne”, meaning colony.

The total village land area is approximately 4844 donums (1 donum equals 1000 square meters) and is surrounded by the territory of the villages of Deir Yassin, Beit Iksa, Lefta, Ein Karem, Qastal, Beit Nqhoba and Beit Surik. (Refer this map for District of Jerusalem)

The population of Qalunya grew from 549 in 1922 to 910 in 1945. In 1998, the number of refugees from Qalunya was estimated to be 6483 people, the majority scattered over all 4 corners of the globe.

Qalunya also has two Khirbas (Khirbet Beit Meze and Khirbat Beit Talma) to the north that contains the foundations of buildings and artificial caves carved into the rock.
Qalunya was the site where the Roman army camped when the Roman commander Titus besieged Jerusalem in the year 70. Qalunya was known as the place that does not pay taxes, i.e. it was viewed as a free zone.

In the late 19th century, Qalunya was described as a moderate-sized village perched on the slope of a hill, 91 m above a valley. Travellers reported that it had a "modern" restaurant. The villagers tended orange and lemon trees that were planted around a spring in the valley.

Most of the village houses were demolished after the armed Zionist organizations occupied it on 12 April 1948 and displaced the full population of 1056, making them refugees. Following this, the Zionists annexed parts of the village’s land to their colonies Motza and Motza Illit (Upper Motza) that were built beside the village in previous years. Ruins of demolished buildings from Qalunya are present near Motza, covered in vegetation, just off the main highway between Jerusalem and Yafa.

The Motza colony was established in the 19th century and was then destroyed during the fighting between its residents and the Palestinians in 1929. The Zionists re-built the colony and named it "Motza Tahtit" (Lower Motza) in 1930. In 1933 they set up “Motza Illit”. The two Colonies were abandoned during the 1948 war and rehabilitated afterwards. In 1956, the Zionists established a new colony on the village land, called Mevasseret Yerushalayim, which was later annexed to the colony “Maoz Zion", built in 1951. Currently the two colonies constitute a suburb of Jerusalem named Mevaseret Zion.

The village was mostly destroyed with the exception of few deserted houses in the south western part of the site, and the cemetery. They have arched doors and windows. One of the houses has been renovated and used by an Israeli Jewish settler. Stone rubble, parts of collapsed cement roofs, and iron window frames are scattered throughout the site.


The total village land area is approximately 4844 dunums (1 donum equals 1000 square meters) of which four thousand five hundred dunums located within the green line and occupied since 1948 and five hundred dunums outside the green line, occupied 1967. This land is divided into four main sections:

Gardens (الجناين )

Walls of the village ( جدر البلد)

Vineyards (Arabic كروم)

Moars (موارس)



Agricultural:

Qalunya Is famous for planting almonds and vineyards and cereal cultivation of wheat, barley, chickpeas and lentils, due to the existence of abundance water sources that were available in the village. The villages was embellished by pomegranate trees that were located in the entrance to the village from direction of Jerusalem.
Qalunya's Water Springs

The people of the village talk about twelve water springs that Allah blessed various parts of Qalunya with. Some of our members were lucky this winter to visit the village and see the water springs at work for themselves.


The water springs are named as follows:

Lemon ( عين الليمونة)

Fawqa ( العين الفوقا)

Shamiyyeh ( عين الشامية)

Ali Joudeh ( عين علي جودة)

Birds ( عين العصافير)

Bridge ( عين الجسر)

Siniora ( عين السنيورة)

Albayyarah ( عين البيارة)

El-jouz ( عين الجوز)

Jaj ( عين الجاج)

Farhan ( عين فرحان)

Zdayyeh ( عين زدية)


Our village Qalunya is located on the main road linking Jerusalem and Jaffa. This strategic location led the Palestinian Mujahideen and rebels to consider our village a centre point for them, under the leadership of Abdul Kader Al-Husseini, to control the road and supply lines to the Zionist forces in Jerusalem. Throughout history, Qalunya was the center of gathering military forces for all nations that came to Jerusalem, because it was considered a fortified gate to Jerusalem, whereby if it fell, Jerusalem would fall to the enemy. All the nations that inhabited Jerusalem barricaded this area with troops so as to ensure the survival of Jerusalem under their control. The last Arab forces gathered was the Khashekji which was centered in Al-Qastal and Qalunya in 1948, before the orders to withdraw to the north reached them. As a result, they left the villagers to their fate without weapons or ammunition, forcing the villagers to leave their homes and their land that became under attack from the Zionist forces. This was indicative of the conspiracy that was hatched against the Palestinian people by some Arab countries with the Zionist organizations sponsored by the British. According to the prepared partition plans, it was supposed to keep the two villages of Qalunya and Al-Qastal under Arab control but the Zionists hatred of Qalunya and the rebels made them insist that the town be under their control. This was agreed to by those who conspired with them and gave the orders to the Arab troops to withdraw to the north of the village towards the village of Beit Surik. Evidence of this being that following the withdrawal they built a barbed wire wall on the land of Qalunya near the village of Beit Surik. That barbed area from the village land was estimated at 500 dunums (approximately 500,000 square metres). This was called the line of fire or armistice line and extended to the walls of Jerusalem to facilitate the complete occupation of Palestine and Jerusalem. The line stayed until the arrival of the Apartheid Wall, which began its inception during the Government of Ariel Sharon in June 2002, and swallowed most of the rest of the territory which was owned by families of the village such as the Sabbah family, the Taha family, the Mattar family and the A'llan family.

Families of the Village
The family tree of the people of Qalunya branches to four main Hamouleh (Arabic حمولة), each including a number of families. The main Hamoulehs are:
Hamouleh Khattab : believed to be the first to inhabit Qalunya during the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem.
Hamouleh Abu Sa'ad
Hamouleh Al-Ghaleeth
Hamouleh Mesha'al

“Martyrs” of Qalunya, those who offered the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of Qalunya and Palestine. The list of Martyrs starts from 1929 and continues until recent years. Some of those who were martyred in Qalunya received a funeral in the villages mosque, Sheikh Hamad Mosque, which was located in the middle of the village.

Here is the list of our honourable Martyrs, may Allah bless them and reward them for their sacrifices. The list may not be conclusive.

The following link takes to the list in Arabic.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4591757073533&set=o.15871495236&type=1&theater

Qalunya’s Martyrs since 1929 till now

1. Numan Abdallah Ahmad Derbas
2. Ali Mahmoud Lakah
3. Hussain Salameh Hussain Askar
4. Izzayeh Mohamamd Ali Salameh
5. Abdul-Rahman Mohammad Ali Salem
6. Anees Al-Malihe
7. Ahmad Al-Desi
8. Saleh Issa Hamdan
9. Mohammad Saleh Abed-Rabuh Salah
10 Taeim Mohammad Ali Khader
11 Hashim Saeed Salman
12. Fatmah Abed Ahmad As'ad Ghannam
13. Ibrahim Mohammad Khader
14. Emdlaleh Abed-Rabuh Salah
15. Helweh Abed-Rabuh Salah
16. Zarefeh Mousa Hamdan
17. Mohammad Hasan Al-Khateeb
18. Mohammad Mustafa Sabbah
19. Ragheb Abdullah Salem
20. Majdi Mohammad Matar
21. Ezz Al-Deen Abdul-Kareem Mohammad Sabbah
22. Salah Taleb Khader
23. Ahmad Mohammad Khaleel Hasan
24. Mohammad Mahmoud Hasan Al-Khateeb
25. Zuhdi Ayyoub Mustafa Ekhlail
26. Mohammad Raja Mohammad Sumrain
27. Wadee' Mahmoud Theeb Salah
28. Ayman Mahmoud Abed Salah Jubran
29. Fayez Mashour Mohammad Farhan
30. Fawwaz Mashour Mohammad Farhan
31. Riyadh Sa’adi Ali Salameh Khattab
32. Ala’A Ziyad Al-Ghaleeth