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.

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, 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.

## 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.

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