Kafr Qasim, also known as Kafr Qassem, Kufur Kassem, Kfar Kassem and Kafar Kassem, is a hill-top city 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 InteriorMeir 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.
In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Kefr Kasim, in Jurat Merda, south of Nablus. 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, during the Ottoman period, French explorerVictor 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 Palestine Exploration Fund'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.
In 1917, during World War I, Kafr Qasim 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 PalestineKufr Quasem had a population of 661, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 989, still all Muslims, in a total of 241 houses. 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 land.
Israel
Israeli military advances came to a halt at Kafir Kasim during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1949, Israel annexed the town in accordance with the armistice agreements, which ended the war. On October 29, 1956, on the eve of the joint Israeli, French and British invasion of Egypt, Israel moved up the time of the local curfew as it was concerned that nearby Jordan would enter the fighting. After the curfew ended, a platoon of Israeli border police who had been sent to the area encountered and killed 49 villagers returning to Kafr Qasim from their work in the fields. Though the village head had been informed a half an hour before the military curfew started, he informed the Israeli commander that the fellahin and shepherds could not be notified in time that the curfew had been imposed. The incident became known as the Kafr Qasim massacre. In December 2007, President of IsraelShimon Peres formally apologised for the massacre. In 1959, the town was granted local council status by the Israeli Interior Ministry. In recent years, the town became known as the place where SheikhAbdullah Nimar Darwish started the Islamic Movement. Israeli parliamentarianSheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, a native of Kafr Qasim, served for a decade on the town council and heads the southern faction of the Islamic Movement of Israel since 1999. In 2008, it was announced that Kafr Qasim could soon become a city.
Demographics
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had 21,100 mostly Muslim inhabitants at the end of 2012. There are 936 females for every 1,000 males. The population increases at an annual rate of 2.7%. The social-economic rank of the town is relatively low. Only 50.2% of 12th graders were eligible for graduation certificates in 2000. The average monthly wage in 2000 was 3,633 NIS, as opposed to the national average of 6,835 NIS at that time.
