Kafr Malik () is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 17 kilometers Northeast of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,946 inhabitants in 2017.
Location Kafr Malik is a Palestinian village in Ramallah Governorate, located 13.8 km northeast of Ramallah. It is bordered by Al Mughayyir to the east, Al Mughayyir and Khirbet abu Falah to the north, Al Mazra'a ash Sharqiya to the west, and by Deir Jarir to the south. Kafr Malik Village profile, ARIJ, p. 5
Village lands included 'Ein Samiya, an agricultural dependency on the sloping valley below.
History About two km east of Kafr Malik, at 'Ain Samiya (grid: 1817/1550), are buildings, possibly dating to the Crusader era.Pringle, 1997, p. 112, citing information from R.Ellenblum
Kafr Malik has been identified with the village Caphermelic of the Crusader period.Clermont-Ganneau, 1874, p. 162, cited in Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 292Röhricht, 1887, p. 200, cited in Finkelstein, 1997, p. 593 In addition, Kafr Malik has been suggested as being identical to Beth HaMelekh, where Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus besieged his Pharisee adversaries.
Ottoman era Kafr Malik was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Al-Quds in the liwa of Al-Quds. It had a population of 21 household,Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 114 who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 7,750 akçe.
In 1838, ‘’Kefr Malik’’ was noted as a Muslim village in the District of Beni Salim, east of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 125
In 1870, Victor Guérin found Kafr Malik to have 350 inhabitants, some thirty Catholics and fifteen "schismatic Greek"; the others were Muslim. In the courtyard of the medhafeh, or guesthouse, he was shown several beautiful stone plaques and three sections of columns and several capitals of the Doric form belonging to an old edifice long since destroyed.Guérin, 1874, pp. 208-209
An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted a population of 416 Muslims in 77 houses, and 15 Christians in 6 houses. In total 432 persons in 83 houses, though the population count included men, only.Socin, 1879, p. 156 also noted it was located in the Beni Salim DistrictHartmann, 1883, p. 115, also noted 83 houses
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Kefr Malik as: "a village of moderate size on high ground."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 292
In 1896 the population of Kefr Malik was estimated to be about 870 persons.Schick, 1896, p. 122
British Mandate era In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the village, called Kufr Malek, had a population of 943, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p. 17 increasing in the 1931 census to 972; 922 Muslims and 20 Christians, in 217 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 50
In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,100; 1,080 Muslims and 20 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 26 while the total land area was 52,196 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 65 Of this, 3,580 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 10,984 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 112 while 53 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 162
Jordanian era In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kafr Malik came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,346 inhabitants in Kafr Malik.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24 It was further noted (note 2) that it was governed through a village council.
1967-present
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kafr Malik has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 12,7% of Kafr Malik land is defined as Area B land, while the remaining 87,3% is defined as Area C. Israel has confiscated land from Kafr Malik for the Israeli settlements of Kokhav HaShahar and Mitzpe Kramim.Kafr Malik Village profile, ARIJ, pp. 18-20
In June 2023, it was the target – along with nearby Turmus Ayya and several other Palestinian villages – of Israeli settler terror attacks. After the attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson called the incursions and attacks by armed Jewish settlers "acts of terror conducted by criminals", adding that the IDF had “failed to prevent” the attacks, described as “very grave”, and that such incidents "create terror" by pushing the attacked civilian populations "towards extremism".
In June 2025, 3 people from Kafr Malik were shot and killed by the Israeli military after Israeli settlers attacked the village.Three Palestinians killed during Israeli settler attack on West Bank village, David Gritten and Wyre Davies, 26 June 2025, BBC‘They attack us without provocation’: West Bank town mourns its dead after settler raid, Julian Borger and Sufian Taha, 26 Jun 2025, The Guardian
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links Welcome To Kafr Malik Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons Kafr Malik Village (fact sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ) Kafr Malik Village profile, ARIJ Kafr Malik, aerial photo, ARIJ Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Kafr Malik Village, ARIJ