Kafr Qara

Kafr Qara
  • כַּפְר קַרִע
  • كَفْر قَرَع
Local council
Hebrew transcription(s)
 • ISO 259Kfar Qara
 • Also spelledKfar Qara (official)
Kfar Qari (unofficial)
Kafr Qara is located in Haifa region of Israel
Kafr Qara
Kafr Qara
Location within Haifa region of Israel
Kafr Qara is located in Israel
Kafr Qara
Kafr Qara
Location within Israel
Coordinates: 32°30′21″N 35°3′14″E / 32.50583°N 35.05389°E / 32.50583; 35.05389
Grid position155/212 PAL
Country Israel
District Haifa
SubdistrictHadera
Natural RegionAlexander Mountain
Government
 • Head of MunicipalityFiras Badahi
Area
 • Total
7,000 dunams (7.0 km2; 2.7 sq mi)
Population
 (2024)
 • Total
21,066
 • Density3,000/km2 (7,800/sq mi)
Name meaning"The village of the gourd"

Kafr Qara (Arabic: كَفْر قَرَع, Hebrew: כַּפְר קַרִע; is an Arab city in Israel 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Haifa. In 2024 its population was 21,066. 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. WAC, an independent labor association, has its headquarters there.

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’.

Ottoman Empire

Kafr Qara' was originally located on a rocky outcrop near Kafr Thilith in the West Bank (see: Uyun Kafr Qari'). 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.

In 1859 the population, having moved to the current location in Wadi 'Arab, was 450 people, who cultivated 32 feddans of land. 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."

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 conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr Qara had a population 776; 767 Muslims and 9 Christians, where the Christians were 7 Roman Catholics and 2 Maronites. The population had increased by the 1931 census to 1,109; 4 Christians and 1,105 Muslims, in 198 houses.

In the 1945 statistics, Kafr Qara had a population of 1,510 Muslims, 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.

Israel

In 2007, Qara held the record for doctors relative to population size, with around 14.8 doctors per 1,000 citizens.

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.

Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±%
19725,000—    
19836,900+38.0%
199510,500+52.2%
200815,000+42.9%
202219,890+32.6%
202421,067+5.9%

Voting Patterns

In the 2022 election, 97 percent of voters in Kafr Qara voted for the Arab parties, while 2 percent voted for the parties of the center-left coalition led by Yair Lapid and 1 percent voted for the parties of the right-wing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Among the voters for the Arab parties, 52 percent voted for Ra'am, while 28 percent voted for Balad and 20 percent voted for the Hadash–Ta'al list.

Notable people

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  2. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 147
  3. ↑ Reject Request to Expand Harish’s Jurisdictional Boundaries
  4. ↑ Stern, Yoav (2011-04-17). "Kfar Qara group to protest lack of work caused by import of foreign labor - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2007. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  5. ↑ Sijill 2, no. 559 in 938/1532; cited in Burgoyne, 1987, p. 546
  6. ↑ 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
  7. ↑ Ma'ahid, 181; cited in Burgoyne, 1987, pp. 545−546
  8. 1 2 Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 42
  9. ↑ Schumacher, 1888, p. 180
  10. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
  11. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 49
  12. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 94
  13. ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 14
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 48
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 90
  16. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 140
  17. ↑ Is there a doctor in the house?[dead link]
  18. ↑ "Arab minority in Israel" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-01. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  19. ↑ חלומה של כל אם ערבייה
  20. ↑ "Regional Statistics". www.cbs.gov.il. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  21. ↑ "Additional files - census 2008". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved July 15, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ↑ "The true results of the elections for the 25th Knesset". Israel: Central Elections Committee. November 1, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2026.

Bibliography