Kafr Qara ( ar, كفر قرع, he, כַּפְר קַרִע; also spelled ''Kafr Qari'') is an Arab town in Israel southeast of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...

. In its population was . Kafr Qara holds the record for doctors relative to population size in the country with around 14.8 doctors per 1,000 citizens (2007, with more than 50 medicine students back then), and is also known for recording a high rate of academics and

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

holders.

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 Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

of the mountain of Nablus’.

Ottoman period

Kafr Qara was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in 1517 with the rest of

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

, and in the ''defter'' no. 610, which was written soon after 1540, the revenue of Kafr Qara was designated to an endowment in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

; the

Madrasah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

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

feddan A feddan ( ar, فدّان, faddān) is a unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and the Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the fe ...

s of land.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
42
/ref> In 1883, the

PEF PEF, PeF, or Pef may stand for the following abbreviations: * Palestine Exploration Fund * Peak expiratory flow * PEF Private University of Management Vienna * Pentax raw file (see Raw image format) * Perpetual Education Fund * Perpetual Emigratio ...

's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after th ...

'' (SWP) described ''Kefr Kara'' as a "good-sized stone village on high ground, with a

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. T ...

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 The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Kufr Qara'' had a population 776; 767 Muslims and 9 Christians,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p
34
/ref> where the Christians were 7 Roman Catholics and 2 Maronites.Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p
49
/ref> The population had increased by the 1931 census to 1,109; 4 Christians and 1,105 Muslims, in 198 houses.Mills, 1932, p
94
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, Kafr Qara had a population of 1,510 Muslims,Department of Statistics, 1945, p
14
/ref> 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 A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colli ...

. It is located in the

Wadi Ara Wadi Ara ( ar, وادي عارة, he, ואדי עארה) or Nahal 'Iron ( he, נחל עירון), is a valley and its surrounding area in Israel populated mainly by Arab Israelis. The area is also known as the " Northern Triangle". Wadi Ara i ...

region, northwest of the Green Line. Most of the inhabitants are Muslim. It is governed by a local council. Kafr Qara now has about 7000 dunams of land left, after land was expropriated by the local authorities and Israeli government for public and military use. WAC, an independent labor association, is located in the village.

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 Hand in Hand – Bridge over the Wadi ( ar, يداً بيد – جسر عبر الوادي; he, יד ביד – גשר על הוואדי) is the third joint Arab- Jewish primary school in Israel, founded in 2004 by the Hand in Hand: Center for ...

, 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.חלומה של כל אם ערבייה
/ref>

Notable people

Nawaf Massalha Nawaf Massalha ( ar, نواف مصالحة, he, נואף מסאלחה, 26 November 1943 – 26 October 2021, also spelt Nawaf Mazalha or Nawaf Masalha) was an Israeli Arab politician and a member of the Knesset. He became the first Muslim Ara ...

, 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 The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

, Balad chairman

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Kafr Qari'
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Haifa District Arab localities in Israel Wadi Ara Local councils in Haifa District