Kafr Qasim

Kafr Qasim ( ar, كفر قاسم, he, כַּפְר קָאסִם), also spelled as Kafr Qassem, Kufur Kassem, Kfar Kassem and Kafar Kassem, is a hill-top city in Israel with an Arab population. It is located about east of Tel Aviv, on the Israeli side of the Green Line separating Israel and the West Bank, in the southern portion of the " Little Triangle" of Arab-Israeli towns and villages. In its population was . The town was the site of the Kafr Qasim massacre, in which the Israel Border Police killed 49 civilians on October 29, 1956. On February 12, 2008, Israeli Minister of the Interior Meir Sheetrit declared Kafr Qasim a city in a ceremony held at the town.

History

The town's area was populated in ancient times, based on remains from the Middle Paleolithic period found in the Qesem Cave. Cisterns, a winepress and terraced fields have also been documented, together with remains from the Byzantine era.

Ottoman Empire

In 1838, during the Ottoman period, it was noted as a Muslim village, ''Kefr Kasim'', in ''Jurat Merda'', south of Nablus.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
126
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Charles van de Velde visited the site in 1851–52, noting "the many ancient stones used in the construction of the present houses and many other remains indicating an ancient site."

In 1870 Victor Guérin visited the village, which he called ''Kafr Kasim''. He found the place to be "the site of a more ancient town, as is shown by cisterns and the mass of rubbish found outside the present village". The village had about four hundred inhabitants.

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described the village as being of moderate size, with buildings constructed principally of adobe, on low hill in open ground. The survey also noted the existence of a rock-cut tomb to the south of the village.

British Mandate

In 1917, during World War I, Kafr Qasim (together with the rest of the area) was captured from the ruling Ottoman Empire by the British Army and was later placed under the British Mandate of Palestine.

In the 1922 census of Palestine ''Kufr Quasem'' had a population of 661, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus p
26
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 989, still all Muslims, in a total of 241 houses.Mills, 1932, p
64
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In 1945 the population of Kafr Qasim was 1,460, all Muslims, who owned 12,765 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 239 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 491 were plantations and irrigable land, and 8,980 were planted with cereals, while 58 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Israel

20th century

Israeli military advances came to a halt at Kafr Qasim during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1949, Israel annexed the town in accordance with the 1949 Armistice Agreements

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