Kifl Haris

Kifl Haris (Arabic: كفل حارس) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located six kilometers west of Salfit and 18 kilometers south of Nablus in the Salfit Governorate, northwest of the Israeli settlement city Ariel.

Kifl Haris
Municipality type D (Village council)
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicكفل حارس
 • LatinKifl Hares (official)
Kefl Harith (unofficial)
View of Kifl Hares, 2011
View of Kifl Hares, 2011
Kifl Haris is located in State of Palestine
Kifl Haris
Kifl Haris
Location of Kifl Haris within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°07′07″N 35°09′25″E
Palestine grid165/169
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateSalfit
Government
 • TypeVillage council
 • Head of MunicipalityAhmad Buziah[1]
Population
 (2007)[2]
 • Total3,248
Name meaning"The village of the guard"[3]

History

Sherds from the Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine/Umayyad, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras have been found here.[4]

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596, Kafr Harit appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in nahiya (subdistrict) of Jabal Qubal, part of the Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 54 households, all Muslim. They paid taxes on occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives, and a fixed amount; a total of 22,500 akçe.[5] Sherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.[4]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the village formed part of the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the Jerusalem and the Nablus regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the Bedouin tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities.”[6]

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted it as a village, Kefr Harith, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[7]

In 1870 Victor Guérin reached the village, after walking through "beautiful plantations of figs and olives". He estimated it had 600 inhabitants.[8] The name of this place was given to Guérin as Kefil Haris. The Wely marked on the Palestine Exploration Fund 1880s map as Sheikh Ata, 1 mile north-east of Kefr Haris, is called by him Sheikh Khather. He also calls attention to the remains of an old watchtower built of large, well-cut stones, between Deir Estia and Kefr Haris. At the latter place he found two broken marble columns built up in the wall of the mosque.[9]

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.[10]

In 1882, PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Kifl Haris as a "somewhat small village on high ground, with olive groves to the east. It has three sacred places, Neby Kifl, Neby Nun, and Neby Lusha."[11]

British Mandate of Palestine era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr Hares had a population of 373, all Muslim,[12] increasing in the 1931 census to 562 persons, still all Muslim, in 130 houses.[13]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 770 Muslims[14] while the total land area was 9,393 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[15] Of this, 4,117 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,131 for cereals,[16] while 32 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[17]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kifl Haris came under Jordanian rule.

In 1961, the population was 1,341.[18]

post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kifl Haris has been under Israeli occupation.[19] Visits by Jewish pilgrims to Kifl Hares are coordinated by the Israeli military.

On 29 May 1989 a large group of Israeli civilians from Joseph's Tomb Yeshiva arrived in Kifl Haris shooting guns randomly. Ibtisan Abdul Rachman Busia, aged 16, was shot dead and two others injured. Two donkeys were killed. Israeli Police detained a number of suspects.[20]

"Tomb of Joshua" and other shrines
Tomb of Joshua
Tomb of Caleb
Tomb of Nun

According to Joshua 24:30, Joshua was buried in Timnath-serah,[21] which is considered by Orthodox Jews to be the current location of Kifl Haris, where a Jewish tradition also places the tombs of Caleb and Nun.[22] Thousands make the pilgrimage to the tombs on the annual commemoration of Joshua's death,[22] 26th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar.[21]

According to a Samaritan tradition, noted in 1877, the tombs of Joshua and Caleb were in Kifl Haris.[23]

The mausoleum at Kifl Haris seen by Jews as the Tomb of Joshua, is known to Muslims as the Maqam of Yusha' ibn Nun (مقام يوشع بن نون; Shrine of Joshua, son of Nun) and as the Maqam of the Servant of Salah ad-Din (Arabic: مقام خادم صلاح الدين; Shrine of the Servant of Saladin).[24] The current structure of the Shrine of Joshua is known to be an Islamic shrine built by Sultan Saladin, which contained on its wall an inscribed plaque stating that "Jawhar bin Abdullah is one of the servants of the shrine."[24] About this man, Palestinian historian Murad Mustafa Dabbagh wrote in his work Biladuna Filastin (Our Country Palestine; 1965) that he performed the pilgrimage on behalf of his master, the martyr Najm al-Din Ayyub, son of Sultan Al-Adil I, and that the Hajj took place in the year 610 AH (1213/14 CE), which places him and the time the shrine was built during the Ayyubid period.[24]

The shrine considered by Jews to be the tomb of Caleb is seen by Muslims to be the maqam of Prophet Dhu al-Kifl, from whom they consider the first part of the town's name to be derived.[24]

The third holy structure in Kifl Haris, standing at some distance[22] in the southwest of the town, is a large open shrine dedicated to Prophet Dhul-Nun, identified with Yunus (Jonah).[24] Jews see in it the tomb of Nun, the father of Joshua.[22]

Wafa Palestine News Agency reports that after the 1967 Six-Day War, the village shrines became a religious destination for Jews, with visits increasingly taking a political and Judaizing character.[24]

Israeli Palestinian conflict

According to the United Nations OCHA, three local residents were killed during the First Intifada and one during the Second Intifada.[25]

42% of the village land is classified as Area B land, while the remainder 58% is Area C. Israel has confiscated 361 dunams of land from Kifl Haris in order to establish the Israeli settlement of Ariel.[26]

On 14 March 2013,[27] Adele Biton was critically injured (later dying from her injuries), and her mother and two sisters were moderately injured, after their car crashed after Palestinians threw stones their way near the village.[28][29] Five youths from Kifl Haris were charged by a military court for responsibility for the incident, and as of February 2015 the case has not yet been concluded.[28]

In June 2014, Jamil Ali Abed Jabir died during a night raid by the Israeli army. Locals say he suffered a heart attack while defending his home. According to an Israeli army spokesman, his house wasn't raided.[30]

In 2015, an Israeli tour of the site was preceded by a convoy of military vehicles which closed off the town entrances and imposed a shutdown of all the village shops so Israeli tourists could visit the tomb for several hours.[31]

References
  1. Municipalities Archived 2007-02-21 at the Wayback Machine Nablus Municipality
  2. 2007 PCBS Census Archived 2010-12-10 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 112.
  3. Palmer, 1881, p. 230
  4. Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 460
  5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 131
  6. Marom, Roy (2022-11-01). "Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE". Lod, Lydda, Diospolis. 1: 17.
  7. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 127
  8. Guérin, 1875, p. 161
  9. Guérin, 1875, p. 161, as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 324
  10. Grossman, David (2004). Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. p. 253.
  11. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp. 284-285
  12. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 25
  13. Mills, 1932, p. 61.
  14. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 18
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 60
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 107
  17. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 157
  18. Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 26
  19. Al Monitor 'War of the shrines' stirs tension between Palestinians, Israelis, al Monitor,
  20. B'Tselem information sheet update June 1989. p10. pdf
  21. "Jewish Calendar: Monday, 26 Nissan, 5783". Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  22. "Tombs of Bible Hero Joshua Opened to Jews". Ezra HaLevi for Arutz Sheva Israel National News (online). 5 July 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  23. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, p. 218 - 219
  24. "مقامات كفل حارس الإسلامية.. تزوير وتدنيس بالغطرسة" [The Islamic shrines of Kifl Haris: Forgery and arrogant desecration]. Alaa Mawqidi for Wafa Palestine News Agency. 18 Dec 2016. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  25. "Kifl Hares village Profile" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-03-07.
  26. Kifl Haris Town Profile, ARIJ, p. 17
  27. "Hundreds attend funeral for 4-year-old terror victim Adele Biton". Ynet.
  28. "Toddler dies two years after stone-throwing incident left her critically injured". Haaretz. 17 February 2015.
  29. "Israeli Girl Injured in Palestinian Rock-Throwing Attack in 2013 Dies". New York Times. 17 February 2013.
  30. "Israel rejects responsibility for elderly Palestinian's death". Ma'an News. 22 June 2014.
  31. 'Hundreds of Israelis visit West Bank tomb under armed guard,' Ma'an News Agency 27 February 2015.

Bibliography
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