Ramallah

Ramallah is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, in the Judaean Mountains north of Jerusalem, beside the city of al-Bireh. It is known for its cafés, galleries and theaters, and for the cultural life of its artists and musicians.

In the Mamluk period Ramallah was a village of orchards whose revenues went to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. It was resettled in the 16th century, and local tradition credits its founding to the Haddadin, Christian families from the region of Karak east of the Jordan, a story that Ottoman tax registers partly confirm. The village grew through the 17th and 18th centuries as a farming community of mostly Christian families. In the 19th century the Quakers built the Ramallah Friends Schools, first for girls and later for boys, and the town became a summer resort of stone villas for families from Jerusalem and the coast.

Rukab's, an ice cream shop opened in the 1940s, makes a stretchy ice cream flavored with mastic and orchid root that is a local favorite. Taybeh, a family brewery in the nearby village of the same name, sells its beer in the bars and restaurants of Ramallah. Olive oil, soap and embroidered textiles from the surrounding villages are sold in the shops of the old town.

The Mahmoud Darwish Museum, on a hill above the city, honors the poet with his manuscripts, books and a garden of terraces. The Ramallah Cultural Palace, opened in the 2000s, hosts concerts and dance performances. The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center holds art exhibitions in a restored stone house of the old town. Each spring the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival brings dance companies from Europe and the Arab world to its stages.