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Welcome To Kafr Lam - كفر لام (כפר לאם)

District of Haifa
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Kafr Lam Village - Palestine: : جولة بين البيوت المنهوبة في قرية كفر لام المهجرة --تصوير نبيلة سالم
 Gallery (41)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date July 16, 1948
Distance From District 21.5 (km) South West of Haifa
Elevation 25 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #19 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Possibly the Coastal Clearing Operation
Defenders Local Palestinian militia, some Arab Liberation Army volunteers, and some support from the Iraqi Army in Tulkarm.
Refugees' Migration Routes The refugees were mostly expelled to the Triangle area and others to nearby POW camps.
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains The village has been mostly destroyed with the exception of two village house (one of them for Ahmad Bey Khalil).
Ethnically Cleansing Kafr Lam inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 5,104
Jewish 0
Public 1,734
**Total 6,838
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 75
Planted W/ Cereal 5,052
Built up 14
Arable 5,127
Non-Arable 1,697
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
19th century 300
1931 215
1945 340
1948 394
Est. Refugees 1998 2,422
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses In (1931): 50 (includes Kafr Lam Station)
Near By Townswhat's new
'Ayn Ghazal
          ↖
al-Sarafand
↑
(N)
Mediterranean  ←
Kafr Lam
→   'Ayn Ghazal
↓
al-Tantura
↘           
Fureidis
Town's Name Through History The Crusaders may have referred to Kafr Lam with same name as the nearby castle of Cafarlet.
Schools Kafr Lam had an elementary school for boys, which was founded by the Ottoman in 1882, but it was later closed during the British Mandate period.
Places of Warship One mosque
Water Supply Kafr Lam had five wells which supplied it with its drinking water needs.
Archeological Sites Kafr Lam containes Crusader's (called Cafarlet) fortress and stone quarries.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 'En Ayyala and ha-Bonim
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was located on a sandstone hill on the coastal plain, about 1 km from the seashore. The coastal railway passed some 200 m to its west. According to the Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228), the town of Kafr Lam was established near Qisarya (Caesarea) by the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik (A.D. 724-743). The Crusaders built a castle there called Cafarlet which was captured by the Muslims in 1265. It was subsequently regained by the Crusaders, only to be taken by Mamluk forces in 1291. In 1596 a farm in Kafr Lam paid taxes to the government. The French traveler Guerin noted in mid-19th that Kafr Lam was situated on top of a small hill and was inhabited by about 300 villagers. He said that the village stood within a large stone enclosure which dated to the time of the Crusades. Mary Rogers, the sister of Edward Rogers (the British vice-consul in Haifa) visited Kafr Lam in 1856. She wrote that its houses were built of mud and stone and that the fields around the village abounded in Indian wheat, millet, sesame, tobacco, and orchards.

In modem times the houses of Kafr Lam were made of stone and either mud or cement and were clustered together. The villagers were Muslims, and maintained a mosque; a boys' elementary school was built in 1882, but it was closed during the Mandate. There were five wells on village lands. The village economy depended on animal husbandry and agriculture. The main crops were various sorts of grain. In 1944/45 a total of 4,833 dunums were allotted to cereals; 75 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The antiquity of Kafr Lam documented in the literary sources remains evident from the partly-visible archaeological remains, chiefly the Crusader's fortress and stone quarries.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

During the Ten Days between the two truces of the war (8-18 July 1948), a number of Israeli military operations were carried out that resulted in the occupation of a string of villages just south of Haifa. One of the smaller of these operations was directed against Kafr Lam. This limited thrust took place around 15-16 July and resulted in the occupation of Kafr Lam, as well as al-Tira, al-Sarafand, and perhaps 'Ayn Hawd. The History of the War of Independence states that this operation involved the first use of support fire from naval forces; two warships participated in the attack, aiming light weapons fire at Kafr Lam and al-Sarafand. This account does not mention the fate of the villagers; however, nearby al-Tira, which was occupied during the same operation, was depopulated by its attackers. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the occupying units sent some of al-Tira's villagers to the Triangle area and others to POW camps.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

In 1949, Zionist immigrants from South Africa and Britain established the settlement of ha-Bonim (143226) to the west of the village site, on village lands. Another settlement, 'En Ayyala (145226), was established in 1949 southeast of the site, also on village lands.

Village Today

The abandoned Crusader fortress and several houses are still standing. One house, that of Ahmad Bey Khalil, has been converted into a school; another is being used as an Israeli post office

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
Help us map this town at WikiMapia
Related Links Wikipedia's Page
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Bibliography and References

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