JANIN

also spelled Jenin town, northern Samaria, central Palestine. Contained within mandated Palestine during 192348, it was in the area annexed by Jordan in 1950 following the ArabIsraeli War of 194849; since the Six-Day War of 1967 it has been in the West Bank territory under Israeli administration. The original ancient settlement is mentioned in the Amarna Letters, a series of 14th-century-BC diplomatic documents found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Some authorities identify it with the biblical Levitical city of En-gannim (Hebrew: Gardens' Spring; Levitical cities were allocated because the Levites were not participants in the territorial division of the Holy Land among the tribes). In the Middle Ages the town was taken by the crusaders, who called it Le Grand Gerin. Janin was a Turkish-German base in World War I; a memorial to fallen German aviators remains. It was an important centre for Jordanian and Iraqi forces in 1948; though much of the strategic territory in the vicinity was taken by Israel, Janin remained in Arab hands. In 194967 it was the northern apex of the triangle (Janin, Tul Karm, Nabulus), a staging area for Arab guerrilla activity against Israel. Lying in a well-settled Arab agricultural region, Janin has long been the chief marketing centre of northern Samaria; wheat, olives, dates, carobs, and figs are grown in the vicinity. Ruins of an interesting Byzantine church have been excavated in the town. Pop. (1984 est.) 25,000.