Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate

The Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate ( ) is one of 16  governorates of Palestine. It covers a large part of the central West Bank, on the northern border of the Jerusalem Governorate. Its district capital or muhfaza (seat) is the city of al-Bireh.:: Al-Bireh Municipality :: Administrative divisions in Palestine 

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the district had a population of 279,730 in 2007.

Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate () is an administrative division based on the fact that the two sister cities Ramallah and Al-Bireh are so adjacent that they appear as one city. This governorate is one of the sixteen governorates under the Palestinian Authority. The governorate center is in the city of Al-Bireh and the governor is Dr. Laila Ghanem (). It is the closest city in the West Bank to the Jerusalem Governorate.  According to statistics,مركز الإحصاءات المركزي الفلسطيني the population of the governorate is 590,401 people.

 Cities and villages 
According to PCBS, the governorate has 78 localities, including s, in its jurisdiction. 13 localities have the status of municipality.

 Cities 
Ramallah: 38,998
Al-Bireh: 45,975
Beitunia: 26,604L
Rawabi: 710

 Refugee camps 
Am'ari
Qalandia
Jalazone

 Municipalities 
Places where more than 5,000 people live, called Municipalities.
Bani Zeid
Bani Zeid al-Sharqiya
Beit Liqya
Bir Zeit
Deir Ammar
Deir Dibwan
Deir Jarir
al-Ittihad
Kharbatha al-Misbah
al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya
Ni'lin
Silwad
Sinjil
Turmus Ayya
al-Zaitounah

 Village councils 
Villages with more than 1000 people.

Aboud
Abu Qash
Abwein
Ajjul
'Atara
Beitin
Bil'in
Beit Sira
Beit Ur al-Fauqa
Beit Ur al-Tahta
Beitillu
Budrus
Burqa
Deir Ibzi
Deir Abu Mash'al
Deir Qaddis
Deir as-Sudan
Dura al-Qar
Ein 'Arik
Ein Qiniya
Ein Yabrud
al-Janiya
Jifna
Kafr Ein
Kafr Malik
Kafr Nima
Khirbet Abu Falah
Kobar
al-Lubban al-Gharbi
al-Midya
al-Mughayyir
Nabi Salih
Qarawat Bani Zeid
Qibya
Rammun
Rantis
Ras Karkar
Saffa
Shuqba
Surda
Taybeh
At-Tira

 Cities 
 Ramallah and Al-Bireh unification 

This unification has a story that took place in the sixteenth century, when the Christian Haddadin clan (), headed by its sheikh Rashid Haddadin, migrated in 1550 from Shobak in the Karak region west to a ruin called Ramallah in the lands of Al-Bireh. According to Bedouin customs, they entered under the protection of the Muslim Al-Bira clans at that time. Over time, Ramallah grew into what it is today. The people of Ramallah consider themselves one large family of one origin.Ramallah Online

 Israeli settlements 
Israel has built population centers and transferred residents to settlements throughout the occupied West Bank, which is in violation of international law. The area of settlements in the governorate in 2004 amounted to 30.3 thousand square kilometers, and the number of official settlements in the Ramallah governorate at the end of 2004 amounted to twenty-four settlements.الجهاز المركزي الفلسطيني للإحصاء: المستوطنات تقوم على 187 ألف دونم من أراضي الضفة، أخبــــــار 

Some of the Israeli settlements established on the lands of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate:
 Beit El settlement
 Psagot settlement (Tall Mountain)
 Halamish settlement
 Ofra settlement

 Governors 
The current governor is Dr Laila Ghannam, the first female governor.

 Mustafa Issa, from 1995 to 2005
 Saeed Abu Ali, from 10 September 2006 to 19 May 2009
 Laila Ghanem, from 22 January 2010

 Related pages 
 Governorates of Palestine

 References 


Category:West Bank