Kafr Qasim - History

History

The town's area was populated in ancient times, with archaeological ruins dating back to Roman times. The modern town was founded in the 17th century by inhabitants of the nearby village Mes'ha. 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. Kafr Qasim is known as the village where the Israeli military advances came to a halt in the central part of Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1949, Israel annexed the town in accordance with the armistice agreements, which ended the war.

Kafr Qasim became known because of the massacre that was committed by the Israel border police (MAGAV) on October 29, 1956, during which 49 civilians were shot dead. This massacre remains an open wound between the villagers and rest of the Israeli society. 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.