Umm al-Fahm (
Arabic: أمّ الفحمⓘ, Umm al-Faḥm;
Hebrew: אוּם אֶל-פַחֶםUm el-Faḥem) is a city located 20 kilometres (12 miles) northwest of
Jenin in the
Haifa District of
Israel. In 2022 its population was 58,665,[1] nearly all of whom are
Arab citizens of Israel.[3] The city is situated on the Umm al-Fahm mountain ridge, the highest point of which is
Mount Iskander (522 metres (1,713 feet)
above sea level), overlooking
Wadi Ara. Umm al-Fahm is the social, cultural and economic center for residents of the Wadi Ara and
Triangle regions.
Etymology
Umm al-Fahm literally means "Mother of Charcoal" in Arabic.[2] According to local lore, the village was surrounded by forests which were used to produce charcoal.[4]
In 1265 C.E. (663 H.), after
Baybars won the territory from the
Crusaders, the revenues from Umm al-Fahm were given to the
Mamlukna'ib al-saltana (
viceroy) of
Syria, Jamal al-Din al-Najibi.[6][7]
Describing the social fabric of the villages, scholars noted that
Umm al-Fahm’s rise to regional ascendancy began with the migration and settlement of the
khalīlī Aghbariyya, Mahamid, and Jabarin clans from
Bayt Jibrin during the late 18th –early 19th centuries. This population movement formed part of a significant wave of
migration from Jabal al-Khalil (
Hebron highlands) to the area of
Jenin […] The Mahajina, came to Umm al-Fahm from [the]
Galilee, completing the village’s fundamental partition into four quarters (hārāt/hamāyil), each with their own headmen,
guesthouses and allotments in the village’s
common land (mushā‘). The Khalīlīs brought with them a new, ‘bunched settlement pattern’, involving a main settlement surrounded by satellite villages, hamlets, and
farms for grazing and
agriculture next to water sources and ancient
ruins.[11]
During the 19th century, Umm al-Fahm became the heart of the so-called "Fahmawi Commonwealth". The Commonwealth consisted of a network of interspersed
communities connected by ties of
kinship, and socially, economically and politically affiliated with Umm al Fahm. The Commonwealth dominated vast sections of
Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe,
Wadi 'Ara and
Marj Ibn 'Amir/Jezreel Valley during that time.[11]
In 1838,
Edward Robinson recorded Umm al-Fahm on his travels,[12] and again in 1852, when he noted that there were 20 to 30 Christian families in the village.[13] The Christian families of Umm al-Fahm owned large tracts of land in Umm al-Fahm as well as watermills at
Lajjun.[11]
In 1870,
Victor Guérin found it had 1800 inhabitants and was surrounded by beautiful gardens.[14] In 1870/1871 (1288
AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya of Shafa al-Gharby.[15]
In 1872,
Charles Tyrwhitt-Drake noted that Umm al-Fahm was "divided into four-quarters, El Jebarin, El Mahamin, El Maj’ahineh, and El Akbar’iyeh, each of which has its own sheikh."[16]
In 1883, the
Palestine Exploration Fund's
Survey of Western Palestine described Umm al-Fahm as having around 500 inhabitants, of which some 80 people were Christians. The place was well-built of stone, and the villagers were described as being very rich in cattle, goats and horses. It was the most important place in the area besides
Jenin. The village was divided into four-quarters, el Jebarin, el Mahamin, el Mejahineh, and el Akbariyeh, each quarter having its own
sheikh. A
maqam for a Sheikh Iskander was noted on a hill above;[17]Conder and
Kitchener wrote that the village's
Qadi said Sheikh Iskander was a king of the
children of Israel, while others saw it as a maqam dedicated for
Alexander the Great.[18]
Umm al-Fahm was the birthplace of Palestinian Arab rebel leader
Yusuf Hamdan. He died there in 1939 during a firefight with British troops.[21]
In the
1945 statistics the population was counted together with other Arab villages from the Wadi Ara region, the first two of which are today part of Umm al-Fahm, namely
Aqqada,
Ein Ibrahim,
Khirbat el Buweishat,
al-Murtafi'a,
Lajjun,
Mu'awiya,
Musheirifa and
Musmus. The total population was 5,490; 5,430 Muslims and 60 Christians,[22] with 77,242
dunams of land, according to the official land and population survey.[23] 4332 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 44,586 dunams for cereals,[24] while 128 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[25]
In 1948, there were 4,500 inhabitants, mostly farmers, in the Umm al-Fahm area. After the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, the
Lausanne Conference of 1949 awarded the entire
Little Triangle to Israel, which wanted it for security purposes. On 20 May 1949, the city's leader signed an oath of allegiance to the State of Israel. Following its absorption into Israel, the town's population grew rapidly (see box). By 1960, Umm al-Fahm was given
local council status by the Israeli government. Between 1965 and 1985, it was governed by elected councils. In 1985, Umm al-Fahm was granted official
city status.[citation needed]
In October 2010, a group of 30 right-wing activists led by supporters of the banned
Kach movement clashed with protesters in Umm al-Fahm.[26] Many policemen and protesters were injured in the fray.[27]
Since the 1990s, the municipality has been run by the Northern
Islamic Movement. Ex-mayor Sheikh
Raed Salah was arrested in 2003 on charges of raising millions of dollars for
Hamas. He was freed after two years in prison.[33] Sheikh
Hashem Abd al-Rahman was elected mayor in 2003.[34] He was replaced in November 2008 by Khaled Aghbariyya.[35]
Today the mayor is Samir Sobhi Mahamed.
Because of its proximity to the border of the
West Bank, the city is named very often as a possible candidate for a land-swap in a peace treaty with the Palestinians to compensate them for land used by Jewish settlements. In a survey of Umm al-Fahm residents conducted by and published in the Israeli-Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab in July 2000, 83% of respondents opposed the idea of transferring their city to Palestinian jurisdiction.[36] The
proposal by
Avigdor Lieberman for a population exchange was rejected by Israeli Arab politicians as
ethnic cleansing.[37]
Economy
Since the establishment of Israel, Umm al-Fahm has gone from being a village to an urban center that serves as a hub for the surrounding villages. Most breadwinners make their living in the building sector. The remainder work mostly in clerical or self-employed jobs, though a few small factories have been built over the years.[citation needed] According to
CBS, there were 5,843 salaried workers and 1,089 self-employed in 2000. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a salaried worker was
NIS 2,855, a real change of 3.4% over the course of 2000. Salaried males had a mean monthly wage of NIS 3,192 (a real change of 4.6%) versus NIS 1,466 for females (a real change of −12.6%). The mean income for the self-employed was 4,885. 488 residents received unemployment benefits and 4,949 received an income guarantee. In 2007, the city had an unofficial 31 percent poverty rate.[33]
Haat Delivery is a food-delivery start-up based in Umm al-Fahm. The service was launched in 2020 and handles tens of thousands of orders a month.[38]
Education
According to
CBS, there are a total of 17 schools and 9,106 students in the city: 15 elementary and 4 junior high-schools for more than 5,400 elementary school students, and 7 high schools for more than 3,800 high school students. In 2001, 50.4% of 12th grade students received a
Bagrut matriculation certificate.
Arts and culture
The
Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery was established in 1996 as a venue for contemporary art exhibitions and a home for original Arab and Palestinian art.[39] The gallery operates under the auspices of the El-Sabar Association.[40]Yoko Ono held an exhibition there in 1999,[41] and some of her art is still on show. The gallery offers classes to both Arab and Jewish children and exhibits the work of both Arab and Jewish artists. In 2007, the municipality granted the gallery a large plot of land on which the
Umm al-Fahm Museum of Contemporary Art will be built.[33]
Green Carpet is an association established by the residents to promote local tourism and environmental projects in and around Umm al-Fahm.[3]
^Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, pp.
161,
169,
195, 2nd Appendix, p.
131
^Robinson and Smith, 1856, pp.
119-120. Robinson's full description: "Five minutes below the top of the pass on the other side is the mouth of a lateral valley on the left, coming down nearly from the south. We entered and followed this up to its head in a pretty and well cultivated basin among the hills. On the steep declivity and ridge above it in the south-west, is situated the large village Um el-Fahm; to which we came at 12 o’clock. The ridge is narrow; and south of it a deep valley runs out to the western plain. The side valley which we had ascended, is likewise separated from the valley we left only by a ridge; on the southern end of this latter is the village. It thus overlooks the whole country towards the west; with a fine prospect of the plain and sea, and also of Carmel; with glimpses of the Plain of
Esdraelon, and a view of
Tabor and Little Hermon beyond. There was, however, a haze in the atmosphere, which prevented us from distinguishing the villages in the plain. There were said to be in Um el-Fahm twenty or thirty families of Christians; some said more. Outside of the village, near the western brow, was a cemetery. Here too was a threshing-sledge; in form like the stone-sledge of New England; made of three planks, each a foot wide; with holes thickly bored in the bottom, into which were driven projecting bits of black volcanic stone. The village belongs to the government of Jenin. They had hitherto paid their taxes at so much a head; but the governor had recently taken an account of their land, horses, and stock; with the purpose, as was supposed, of exacting the tithe. Twenty-five men had been taken as soldiers under the conscription." Cited in Zertal, 2016, pp.
116-
117
^Grossman, David (2004). Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. p. 257.
^Tyrwhitt-Drake, 1873, pp.
28–29. He further noted: "There are some fifteen houses of Christians, which represent a total of about eighty souls. These are mostly birds of passage, who 'squat' wherever and as long as, they find it convenient, and then flit 'to fresh fields and pastures new'. The natives are an unruly lot, who never paid taxes till within the last few years, and who have not yet learnt the lesson of subjection. Some days ago a man tried to seize my horse’s bridle as I was passing near a threshing-floor, and insolently told me to be off, at the same time making as though he would strike me; but, seeing then that he had gone rather too far, took to his heels and fled. After a suspense of three or four days, I consented, at the intercession of two of the sheikhs, the kadi, and other village worthies, not to have the man imprisoned at Jen’in [sic], so he was brought and solemnly beaten before my tent door by the sheikh of his quarter. As civility in this country is induced by fear and a sense of inferiority, we shall probably be treated with decent respect for some little time to come. One cause of the villagers' unruliness is their wealth: they possess large herds of cattle and flocks of goats, a very considerable number of horses, and more than the normal quantity of camels and donkeys. Their land comprises a wide tract of thicket (called Umm el Khattaf, 'Mother of the Ravisher,’ from the dense growth which, as it were, seizes and holds those who try to pass through it) to the south and east, arable hills to the west, and virtually as much of the rich plain of
Esdraelon (Merj ibn 'Amir) as they choose to cultivate. Besides all this, the village owns some twenty or more springs, under whose immediate influence orange and lemon trees flourish.
Shaddocks [citrus fruit] grow to an enormous size; I have one now in the tent whose circumference lengthwise is 2ft. 61⁄2 in, and its girth 2ft. 31⁄2 in; weight, about eight or nine pounds; and tomatoes, cucumbers, and other thirsty vegetables flourish. The taxes paid by the village amount to 23,000 piasters, or £185 sterling, in addition to the
poll-tax on sheep, goats, and cattle, which probably comes to £20 or more". Cited in Zertal, 2016, pp.
118-
119
'We are all Umm El Fahm' Protests against land confiscation in an Umm El Fahm, November 1998, Issue No. 86 The Other Israel (newsletter of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace)