Kafr Qara (, ; also spelled ''Kafr Qari'') is an Arab city in Israel southeast of

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, 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 metropolitan area i ...

. 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 a postgraduate 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 prac ...

holders.

History

Mamluk period

An early ''

defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

'' entry noted that Kafr Qara had been incorporated into the "Diwan of the Circassian sultanate" after it had been seized by ‘the

Shaykhs Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

of the mountain of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

’.

Ottoman period

Kafr Qara was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517 with the rest of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, 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 is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

; the

Madrasah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning ...

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 () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and 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 feddan is the only n ...

s of land.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
42
/ref> In 1883, the PEF'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 completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

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

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth 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. The ...

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 corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

. It is located in the

Wadi Ara Wadi Ara (, ) or Nahal 'Iron (), is a valley and its surrounding area in Israel populated mainly by Arab citizens of Israel, Arab Israelis. The area is also known as the "Triangle (Israel), Northern Triangle". Wadi Ara is located northwest of t ...

region, northwest of the Green Line. Most of the inhabitants are

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. 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, 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, first

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 ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

, 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