KafarKila (, also, ''Kfarkila'', ''Kfarkela'', ''Kafarkela'') is a village in
Southern Lebanon.
Kafarkila name means "The village of the pasturage".
History
Al-Maqdisi (c. 945/946 – 991) noted that Kafr Kila (called ''Kafar Kila'') was "A place lying a day's march from
Tabariyyah
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fou ...
".
Ottoman era
In the 1596
tax records, it was named as a village, ''Kafr Kuk'', in the
Ottoman ''
nahiya'' (subdistrict) of
Tibnin, part of
Safad Sanjak, with a population of 31 households and 2 bachelors, all
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
. The villagers paid taxes on agricultural products, such as
wheat,
barley, olive trees, goats, beehives and winter pastures; a total of 4,700
akçe
The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...
.
[Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 184]
In 1838,
Eli Smith
Eli Smith (born September 13, 1801, in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (Whitney) Smith, and died January 11, 1857, in Beirut, Lebanon) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andov ...
noted Kafr Kila's population as
Metawileh.
In 1875
Victor Guérin visited and noted that the village had about 1,000
Metawileh inhabitants. He further noted: "The mosque and several of the houses are built of old materials. The spring is partly ancient."
In 1881, 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'' (SWP) described it as "a village, built of stone and mud, containing about 150 Moslems, situated on sloping ground, with figs, olives, and arable land around. A good spring near."
Modern era
Following the 1982 Israeli invasion Kafr Kila became part of their “
security zone
Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...
”. On 11 September 1989 three
IDF soldiers were wounded in an ambush in Kafr Kila. The
Lebanese Communist Party claimed responsibility. Two of the attackers were killed.
The total population of the village is about 14,500. The occupants' number increases dramatically during summer. Its altitude is around 700 m from sea level. Kafarkila is well known for its high quality
olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
,
grapes, and
bee honey in addition to many other farming activities.
Many developments are currently taking place due to the efforts and the determination of the municipality side by side with the people in order to mitigate the problems that accumulated over the years from
central government indifference,
civil war,
occupation and
border wars.
Kafr Kela is home to a Hezbollah military base complete with fighters, about 20 arms depots, fighting positions and observation posts. The first Hezbollah tunnel the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF) found near Metula came out of Kafr Kela. Dozens of Hezbollah members live in the village among the civilian population.
References
Bibliography
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External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2:
IAAWikimedia commons
Localiban
www.kafarkila.net
{{Authority control
Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000
Populated places in Marjeyoun District
Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon