Skip to the record
Palestine Atlas

Qalqilya

Basic Information

Type
City
Governorate
Qalqilya
Region
West Bank - Northern

Overview

Qalqilya (Arabic: قلقيلية) is a Palestinian city in the northwestern West Bank, known historically as the 'breadbasket of Palestine' for its extraordinarily fertile agricultural lands. Situated on the edge of the coastal plain, Qalqilya was famous for producing citrus, vegetables, and poultry that supplied markets across the West Bank and beyond. Since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, the city has suffered one of the most extreme cases of territorial strangulation in the West Bank. The Israeli separation wall, completed around Qalqilya in the early 2000s, now almost completely surrounds the city on three sides, cutting it off from approximately 40,000 dunams (60%) of its agricultural land. The wall ranges from 6-8 meters high around the city, with only a single Israeli-controlled gate (the Qalqilya crossing) providing access. The settlement of Alfei Menashe (established 1983) was built on confiscated Qalqilya-area land and expanded to surround the city from the west. The settlements of Zufin (1989) and Oranit (1985) further encroach from the south and southwest. Qalqilya has been reduced from a thriving agricultural city to an isolated urban enclave, its economy devastated, its farmers separated from their lands, and its residents trapped behind concrete walls. This transformation is one of the starkest examples of how Israeli settlement and wall policies have destroyed Palestinian urban and agricultural life.

Historical Significance

Historically known as the 'breadbasket of Palestine' for its extraordinarily fertile agricultural lands; the most striking example of how the separation wall and settlement expansion have destroyed a Palestinian city's economy and territorial contiguity.

Sources and record limitations

Source detail varies by record. Some entries include document and page references; others supply source names only. Check the cited material and the record's limitations before relying on a specific claim.

  • PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics)
  • ARIJ (Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem)
  • UN OCHA
  • PASSIA
  • B'Tselem
  • Palestinian municipal records

Most severely affected Palestinian city by the separation wall.