Ramallah

Ramallah (rämä`lä), town (2003 est. pop. 24,000), in the West Bank, N of Jerusalem. It lies in a fertile farming region where olives, figs, and grapes are grown. Ramallah is inhabited mainly by Christian Arabs. It was occupied by Israeli forces after the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. It is the seat of Bir Zeit Univ. (1924), which became a focal point of Palestinian Arab unrest; the institution was forced to close numerous times. A number of Arab refugee camps were established in the area, and the town's environs were often a scene of unrest and violence during the Intifada in the late 1980s and early 90s. Israeli forces withdrew from the town in Dec., 1995, as a prelude to the establishment of Palestinian self-rule. In the renewed violence beginning in 2000, Ramallah was again the scene of fighting between Palestinians and Israelis.