Kafr Qara

History

Mamluk period

An early defter entry noted that Kafr Qara had been incorporated into the "Diwan of the Circassian sultanate" after it had been seized by ‘the Shaykhs of the mountain of Nablus’.

Ottoman period

Kafr Qara was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with the rest of Palestine, and in the defter no. 610, which was written soon after 1540, the revenue of Kafr Qara was designated to an endowment in Jerusalem; the Madrasah Al-Uthmaniyya. The whole of the revenue of Kafr Qara, a total of 3,400 aspers annually, belonged to this endowment.

In 1859 the population was 450 people, who cultivated 32 feddans of land. In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Kefr Kara as a "good-sized stone village on high ground, with a well to the east, and caves."

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kiryat Kefr Kara had about 705 inhabitants, all Muslim.

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr Qara had a population 776; 767 Muslims and 9 Christians, where the Christians were 7 Roman Catholics and 2 Maronites. The population had increased by the 1931 census to 1,109; 4 Christians and 1,105 Muslims, in 198 houses.

In the 1945 statistics, Kafr Qara had a population of 1,510 Muslims, who owned 14,543 dunams of land. Of this, 227 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 11,516 for cereals, while 25 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

File:'Ara 1942.jpg|Kafr Qara 1942 1:20,000 File:Qannir 1945.jpg|Kafr Qara 1945 1:250,000

Israel

Kafr Qara is part of the Triangle. It is located in the Wadi Ara region, northwest of the Green Line. Most of the inhabitants are Muslim. It is governed by a local council. Kafr Qara encompasses 7811 dunams of land. WAC, an independent labor association, has its headquarters there.

Education

In September 2003, a group of local parents founded a bilingual, multicultural elementary school in Kafr Qara, named Hand in Hand – Bridge over the Wadi, or "Bridge over the Wadi". Kafr Qara high school, established in 1970 as a vocational school, is now a comprehensive high school for 10th–12th graders from Kafr Qara and environs. The school has participated in multicultural projects such as Jitli, and offers a joint leadership program for Arab and Jewish teenagers.

Kafr Qara holds the highest record for doctors relative to population size in the country, around 14.8 doctors per 1,000 citizens (2007, with more than 50 medicine student back then), Kafr Qara known as well for recording a high rate of academics and master's degree holders.

Notable people

• Nawaf Massalha, first Muslim to serve on the Israeli cabinet
• Ali Yahya (1947–2014), First Israeli Arab Ambassador of the state of Israel. Appointed ambassador in 1995 to Finland, and 2006 to Greece
• Jamal Zahalka, Arab member of Knesset, Balad chairman

References

Bibliography

References

1. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/147/mode/1up 147]
2. [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house-1.230858 Is there a doctor in the house?]
3. Sijill 2, no. 559 in 938/1532; cited in Burgoyne, 1987, p. 546
4. Ma'ahid, 181; cited in Burgoyne, 1987, pp. 545−546
5. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/42/mode/1up 42]
6. Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n205/mode/1up 180]
7. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n36/mode/1up 34]
8. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n51/mode/1up 49]
9. Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 94]
10. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p14.jpg 14]
11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Haifa/Page-048.jpg 48]
12. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Haifa/Page-090.jpg 90]
13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Haifa/Page-140.jpg 140]
14. [https://maki.org.il/en/?p=9344Adalah: Reject Request to Expand Harish’s Jurisdictional Boundaries]
15. [https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/1.1449256 חלומה של כל אם ערבייה]
16. "Arab minority in Israel".
17. Stern, Yoav. (2011-04-17). "Kfar Qara group to protest lack of work caused by import of foreign labor - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News". Haaretz.com.