2,191 inhabitants in 1922 to 5,490 inhabitants by 1945,283 and with an area of 145,000 dunums,284 Umm al-Fahm was the largest city in the Jenin District.285 Umm al-Fahm’s development had been, to a significant extent, the result of its integration into the economic, social and cultural fabric of Palestine and its effective transport connections to its neighboring villages, the rest of Palestine, and the Arab world. Located along the Wadi ‘Ara corridor, in “Palestine’s center […] on the main road that connects the south and the north,”286 Umm al-Fahm constituted a crossing point and a commercial artery to the Arab world. Just 7 kilometers north of Umm al-Fahm, the central bus station of Al-Lajjun village287 operated on a trade route running from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt and the Gaza Strip and connecting Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.288 Within Palestine, the Shakhsheer Bus Company provided connectivity between the Galilee region and the Mediterranean coast,289 running routes from Umm al-Fahm to Jenin, Haifa and Jaffa where its crops were in high demand.290 More locally, Umm al-Fahm developed into a regional hub of the Little Triangle area (al-Muthalath in Arabic), as well as a central locality of the Jenin district.291 It was evident that transport and road connectivity added to the growth of Umm al-Fahm both for its own subsistence as well as for its external trade. Located along Wadi ‘Ara that formed and continues to form a natural connection between the Zionist colonies from northern and coastal Palestine, Umm al-Fahm, along with adjacent communities, became a strategic location for the achievement of the Zionist colonial project. Wadi ‘Ara provided a critical connection between the colonies established along the Mediterranean shore 283 Palestine Remembered, “Umm al-Fahm, District of Jenin,” webpage, available at: https://www. palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Umm_al_Fahm_1665/index.html [accessed 28 February 2020]. 284 Jabbarin, supra 281. 285 Jenin itself only counted 3,990 inhabitants in 1945. Palestine Remembered, “Jenin, District of Jenin,” webpage, available at: https://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Jinin_524/index.html [accessed 28 February 2020]. 286 Jabbarin, supra 281. 287 Palestine Remembered, “Al-Lajjun, District of Jenin,” webpage, available at: https://www. palestineremembered.com/Jinin/al-Lajjun/index.html [accessed 28 February 2020]. 288 Jabbarin, supra 281. 289 Ibid. 290 Umm Al-Fahm Archive, “Agriculture” [Arabic], blog post, 3 August 2013, available at: http:// ummelfahemarchive.com/portfolio/agriculture/ [accessed 28 February]. 291 Claude Conder and Horatio Kitchener, The Survey of Western Palestine, Edward Palmer and Walter Besant (eds.) (London: The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1882), 46, available at: https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/45/mode/1up [accessed 28 February 2020]. 75