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Jericho, Jericho

It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Palestinians.

Elisha, Elijah's disciple, is thought to have lived in Jericho and is said to have purified the Ein el-Sultan spring.

First century Jericho is described in Strabo's Geography as follows: "Jericho is a plain surrounded by a kind of mountainous country, which in a way, slopes toward it like a theatre. Here is the Phoenicon, which is mixed also with alll kinds of cultivated and fruitful trees, though it consists mostly of palm trees. It is 100 stadia in length and is everywhere watered with streams. Here also are the Palace and the Balsam Park." The rock cut tombs of a Herodian and Hasmonean era cemetery lie in the lowest part of the cliffs between Nuseib al-Aweishireh and Jebel Quruntul in Jericho and and were used to between 100 BCE and 68 CE.

Accounts of Jericho by a Christian pilgrim are given in 333. Shortly therefter, the built-up area of the town was abandoned, and a Byzantine Jericho, Ericha was built a mile to the east, around which the modern town is centered.

Irrigated agriculture was developed under Islamic rule, reaffirming Jericho's reputation as a fertile "City of the Palms". Shahin, 2005, p. 285.

The Jericho Conference, organized by King Abdullah and attended by over 2,000 Palestinian delegates in 1948 proclaimed "His Majesty Abdullah as King of all Palestine" and called for "the unification of Palestine and Transjordan as a step toward full Arab unity." In mid-1950, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank and Jericho residents, like other residents of West Bank localities became Jordanian citizens. Benvenisti, 1998, pp. 27-28.

It was one of the first cities handed over to Palestinian Authority control in 1994, in accordance with the Oslo accords, which saw construction of the Oasis casino. The other city handed over to the Palestinians was Gaza. Jericho was re-occupied by Israel during the Al-Aqsa Intifada of 2001. overlooking modern Jericho On March 14, 2006, the Israel Defense Forces took captive six inmates from a Jericho prison following a 10-hour siege. Israel's reason for the siege was to capture PFLP general secretary, Ahmad Sa'adat and five other inmates for the alleged assassination of Israeli tourist minister Rehavam Zeevi because of announcements of their upcoming release. Both sides of the siege were armed and at least two people were killed and 35 wounded in the incident. Before the siege British and American monitors were guarding the prison but withdrew, citing lax security arrangements. The siege caused an uproar amongst the PFLP members and supporters as well as other PLO factions, and as a result Palestinian militants raided and kidnapped British and European citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The event is considered controversial and somewhat hampered Palestinian relations with the UK and US.

The average temperature is in January and in August. The constant sunshine, rich alluvial soil, and abundant water from the spring have always made Jericho an attractive place for settlement.

Kathleen Kenyon reported ...the Middle Bronze Age is perhaps the most prosperous in the whole history of Kna'an. ... The defenses ... belong to a fairly advanced date in that period and there was a massive stone revetment... part of a complex system of defenses (pp.213218). Kenyon, Kathleen "Digging up Jericho"(London, 1957).

According to Matthew 20:29-30 , Jesus healed two blind men as he and his disciples were leaving Jericho.In Mark 10:46-52 , Mark tells the same story, except he only mentions one of the men, Bartimaeus.Like Mark, Luke only mentions one man, but he differs in his account by saying that Jesus and his apostles were approaching Jericho. Some versions reconcile this by translating it as "near".In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author mentions the Old Testament story of the destruction of Jericho as an outward display of faith. ( Hebrews 11:30 )In the story of the Good Samaritan (the experience is not told by Jesus as a parable, but as a narrative; Luke 10:30), Jesus mentions that a certain man was on his way to Jericho.

Hadawi, 1970, p.57 In the first census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in 1997, Jericho's population was 14,674. Palestinian refugees constituted a significant 43.6% of the residents or 6,393 people.

Jericho has a young population, with nearly half (49.2%) of the inhabitants being under the age of 20. People between the ages of 20 and 44 made up 36.2% of the population, 10.7% between the ages of 45 and 64, and 3.6% were over the age of 64.

Source: Wikipedia > Jericho