KAFR KAMĀ

KAFR KAMĀ, the larger of the two Muslim-Circassian villages in Israel, in eastern Lower Galilee, 3 mi. (4½ km.) northeast of Kefar Tavor. The second Circassian village is al-Rīhāniyya, located in Upper Galilee. Kafr Kamā was founded toward the end of the 19th century on the remains of an earlier settlement which had existed from the Roman to the Early Arab period. The Circassian founding settlers, who abandoned their Caucasian homeland in 1878 when it was occupied by czarist Russia, were granted asylum in the Turkish Empire. During the Israeli war of independence (1948), the inhabitants of Kafr Kamā were not inimical toward their Jewish neighbors, and good economic relations subsequently developed. Farming includes field crops and livestock. In 1950 Kafr Kamā received municipal council status. Its population   rose from 1,330 in 1968 to 2,710 in 2002, occupying an area of 4 sq. mi. (10 sq. km.) (Efraim Orni)