Ein Qiniyye or 'Ayn Qunya (; ) is a town located in the Golan Heights, in the southern foothills of Mount Hermon. The village lies at an elevation of approximately 750 metres above sea level. It has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and is administered by Israel as a local council since 1982. The town has a predominantly Druze population.
Its inhabitants are mostly Syrian citizens with permanent residency status in Israel (for more about the status and position of the Golan Heights Druze community see here). In it had a population of .
History The presence of Druze around Mount Hermon is documented since the founding of the Druze religion in the beginning of the 11th century.Roy Marom, “Sukayk and al-Summāqah: Mamluk Rural Geography in the Northern Jawlān/Golan Heights in the Light of Qāytbāy’s Endowment Deeds,” in Kate Raphael and Mustafa Abbasi (ed.s), The Golan in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods: an Archaeological and Historical Study: Excavations at Naʿarān and Farj, In Honour of Moshe Hartal, Yigal Ben Ephraim and Shuqri ‘Arraf, Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion Volume xiv (2024): 67
In 1838, Eli Smith noted Ein Qiniyye's population as Druze, Antiochian Greek Christians and Maronites.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 136
Ein Qiniyye is one of the four remaining Druze-Syrian communities on the Israeli-occupied side of Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights, together with Majdal Shams, Mas'ade and Buq'ata. Geographically a distinction is made between the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon, the boundary being marked by the Sa'ar Stream; however, administratively usually they are lumped together. Ein Qiniyye and Majdal Shams are on the Hermon side of the boundary, thus sitting on limestone, while Buq'ata and Mas'ade are on the Golan side, characterised by black volcanic rock (basalt).
Since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law, Ein Qiniyye is under Israeli civil law, and incorporated into the Israeli system of local councils. Some of the young people of the village used to study at Syrian universities, but at the end of 2012 a Druze cleric advised them against applying until the Syrian civil war was over.Syria war drives Druze students away Ynetnews, 2 December 2012 Most of the town's residents are Druze, but a few Christians remain of a much larger community that left the town in the 1940s and 1950s.
Demography
Transportation The Golan Regional Council operates eight buses per day from Ein Qiniyye to the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. The bus line also stops at Ghajar along the way. The bus ride to Kiryat Shmona takes approximately 31 minutes. Ein Qiniyye is located two kilometers from Highway 99, an east-west road running through the northern Golan Heights.
Religious buildings Ein Qiniyye has a church: St. George of the Maronite Church
Sister city Great Neck, New York, USA (2022)
See also Druze in Syria Christianity in Syria
References
External links