Jalqamus is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located 10 km southeast of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 1,867 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 2,624 by 2017.

History

Jalaqmus is not found in 16th century records, but local describe it as an ancient site. Its original residents reportedly came from the areas of Nablus and Ramallah. Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.

Ottoman era

In 1517 Jalqamus was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. During the 16th and 17th centuries, it belonged to the Turabay Emirate (1517-1683), which encompassed the Jezreel Valley, Mount Carmel, Beit She'an Valley, northern Samaria, Ramot Menashe, the northern part of the Sharon plain. In 1838, during the Ottoman era, Jelkamus was noted as a village in the Haritheh area, north of Nablus. In 1870, Jalqamus, called Djell Kamous, situated south of Deir Abu Da'if, was one of the villages Victor Guérin noted from Faqqua. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly. In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Jelkamus as "a small village on a hill-top, surrounded by plough-land, with a few olives, built of stone and mud, with rain-water cisterns."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jalqamus had a population of 124 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 150 Muslims, in a total of 31 houses. In the 1944/5 statistics the population of Jalqamus was 220 Muslims, with 4,437 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 180 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,422 for cereals, while 6 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Jalqamus came under Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 435 inhabitants.

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Jalqamus has been under Israeli occupation. Under the Oslo Accords, the town was assigned to Area A. During the early months of the First Intifada, 17 May 1989, Omar Yusuf Bayer, aged 42, from Jalqamus, was shot dead while in Jenin. Yitzhak Rabin in a reply to a member of Knesset, August 1989, confirmed early reports that he had been shot by a civilian and therefor the Military Police Investigators were not investigating.

Holy sites

Jalaqmus is home to a shrine dedicated to the village's saint, named Ash-Sheikh Muhammad al-Muamni. It is located in the southern part of the village, near the village's mosque.

Demography

According to local tradition, the people of Jalaqmus belong to the al-Muaminin tribe, descendants of Husayn ibn Ali. Historically, this tribe was one of the largest and strongest in northern Transjordan. Its members migrated to Palestine, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.