Kafr Qasim

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Kefr Kasim, in Jurat Merda, south of Nablus.[6]

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."[7]

In 1870, during the Ottoman period, French explorer 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".[8] The village had about four hundred inhabitants.[9]

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.[10]

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,[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 989, still all Muslims, in a total of 241 houses.[12]

In 1945 the population of Kafr Qasim was 1,460, all Muslims,[13] who owned 12,765 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[14] 239 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 491 were plantations and irrigable land, and 8,980 were planted with cereals,[15] while 58 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[16]

Kafr Qasim 1941 1:20,000

Kafr Qasim 1945 1:250,000 (top right quadrant)

Kafr Qasim massacre memorial

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.[17] After the curfew ended, a platoon of Israeli border police (MAGAV) 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.[18] The incident became known as the Kafr Qasim massacre. In December 2007, President of Israel Shimon Peres formally apologised for the massacre.[19] 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 Sheikh Abdullah Nimar Darwish started the Islamic Movement. Israeli parliamentarian Sheikh 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.[20]