{{pp-extended|small=yes}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Kafr Qara | native_name = {{Hlist | {{Lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|כַּפְר קַרִע}}|rtl=yes}} | {{Lang|ar|كَفْر قَرَع|rtl=yes}} }} | settlement_type = Local council | translit_lang1 = Hebrew | translit_lang1_type1 = ISO 259 | translit_lang1_info1 = Kfar Qara | translit_lang1_type3 = Also spelled | translit_lang1_info3 = {{br separated entries|Kfar Qara (official)| Kfar Qari (unofficial) }} | image_skyline = Kafr Qara P1070763.JPG | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_map = Israel haifa#Israel | pushpin_mapsize = | pushpin_label_position = left | pushpin_map_caption = | coordinates = {{coord|32|30|21|N|35|3|14|E|region:IL|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | grid_name = Grid position | grid_position = 155/212 PAL | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = {{ISR}} | subdivision_type1 = | subdivision_name1 = | subdivision_type2 = District | subdivision_name2 = {{flag|Haifa District|name=Haifa}} | leader_title = Head of Municipality | leader_name = Firas Badahi | unit_pref = dunam | area_total_dunam = {{formatnum:7000|R}} | population_footnotes = {{Israel populations|reference}} | population_total = {{Israel populations|Kafar Qara}} | population_as_of = {{Israel populations|Year}} | population_density_km2 = auto | blank_name_sec1 = Name meaning | blank_info_sec1 = "The village of the gourd"<ref>Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/147/mode/1up 147]</ref> }} '''Kafr Qara''' ({{langx|ar|كَفْر قَرَع}}, {{langx|he|כַּפְר קַרִע}}; is an Arab city in Israel {{convert|22|mi|km}} southeast of Haifa. In {{Israel populations|Year}} its population was {{Israel populations|Kafar Qara}}.{{Israel populations|reference}} 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.<ref>[https://maki.org.il/en/?p=9344Adalah: Reject Request to Expand Harish’s Jurisdictional Boundaries]</ref> WAC, an independent labor association, has its headquarters there.<ref name="haaretz"/>
==History== ===Mamluk Sultanate=== 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’.<ref>Sijill 2, no. 559 in 938/1532; cited in Burgoyne, 1987, p. 546</ref>
===Ottoman Empire=== Kafr Qara' was originally located on a rocky outcrop near Kafr Thilith in the West Bank.<ref>Marom, Roy (2026). ''Settled Land: The Arab Countryside in Israel/Palestine'' (in Hebrew). Ra'anana: Lamda Scholarship, The Open University of Israel Press. p. 20. {{ISBN|978-965-06-1769-1}}</ref> It 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.<ref>Ma'ahid, 181; cited in Burgoyne, 1987, pp. 545−546</ref>
In 1859 the population, having moved to the current location in Wadi 'Arab, was 450 people, who cultivated 32 feddans of land.<ref name=SWP42>Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/42/mode/1up 42]</ref> 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."<ref name=SWP42/>
A population list from about 1887 showed that ''Kiryat Kefr Kara'' had about 705 inhabitants, all Muslim.<ref>Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n205/mode/1up 180]</ref>
===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,<ref name=Census1922>Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n36/mode/1up 34]</ref> where the Christians were 7 Roman Catholics and 2 Maronites.<ref name=Census1922b>Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n51/mode/1up 49]</ref> The population had increased by the 1931 census to 1,109; 4 Christians and 1,105 Muslims, in 198 houses.<ref name="Census1931">Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 94]</ref>
In the 1945 statistics, Kafr Qara had a population of 1,510 Muslims,<ref name=1945p14>Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p14.jpg 14]</ref> who owned 14,543 dunams of land.<ref>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]</ref> Of this, 227 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 11,516 for cereals,<ref>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]</ref> while 25 dunams were built-up (urban) land.<ref>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]</ref>
<gallery> File:'Ara 1942.jpg|Kafr Qara 1942 1:20,000 File:Qannir 1945.jpg|Kafr Qara 1945 1:250,000 </gallery> === Israel === In 2007, Qara held the record for doctors relative to population size, with around 14.8 doctors per 1,000 citizens.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house-1.230858 Is there a doctor in the house?]{{dead link|date=May 2026|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==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.<ref name="cac.at" />
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.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/1.1449256 חלומה של כל אם ערבייה<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
==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
==See also== * Ihud Bnei Kafr Qara F.C. * Arab localities in Israel
==References== {{reflist|2|refs= <ref name="cac.at">{{cite web |url=http://doku.cac.at/kfar_qara_presentation.pdf |title=Arab minority in Israel |access-date=2011-11-25 |archive-date=2011-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001041954/http://doku.cac.at/kfar_qara_presentation.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref name="haaretz">{{cite web|last=Stern |first=Yoav |url=https://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/834571.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314050856/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/834571.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 14, 2007 |title=Kfar Qara group to protest lack of work caused by import of foreign labor - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News |publisher=Haaretz.com |date=2011-04-17 |access-date=2011-11-25}}</ref> }}
==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book | editor =Barron, J.B. |title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923}} *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR_qAAAAMAAJ |title=Mamluk Jerusalem |year=1987|author=Burgoyne, Michael Hamilton |isbn=090503533X}} *{{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=2}} *{{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine}} *{{cite book |title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|year=1970|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center}} *{{cite book | editor = Mills, E.|title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932}} *{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund}} *{{cite journal | last = Schumacher | first =G.| author-link = Gottlieb Schumacher | title = Population list of the Liwa of Akka | journal = Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund | volume = 20 | pages = 169–191 | url = https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme19pale | year = 1888}} {{refend}}
==External links== * {{official website}} *[http://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Kafr_Qari__1266/index.html Welcome To Kafr Qari'] *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8: [https://web.archive.org/web/20141015091439/http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8389 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.08.jpg Wikimedia commons] {{Arab localities in Israel footer|uncollapsed}} {{Haifa District}}
Category:Arab localities in Israel Category:Wadi Ara Category:Local councils in Haifa District