Kifl Haris
Kifl Haris () 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. History. Sherds from the Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine/Umayyad, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras have been found here. 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. Sherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here. In 1838, Edward Robinson noted it as a village, "Kefr Harith", in the "Jurat Merda" district, south of Nablus. In 1870 Victor Guérin reached the village, after walking through "beautiful plantations of figs and olives". He estimated it had 600 inhabitants. 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. 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." 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, increasing in the 1931 census to 562 persons, still all Muslim, in 130 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 770 Muslims while the total land area was 9,393 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4,117 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,131 for cereals, while 32 dunams were classified as built-up areas. 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. post-1967. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kifl Haris has been under Israeli occupation. 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. Tomb of Joshua. According to a Samaritan tradition, noted in 1877, the tombs of  Joshua and Caleb were in Kifl Haris. Biblical tradition places the tomb of Joshua, Caleb, and Nun according to in Timnath-heres which is attributed to be the current location of Kifl Haris. Thousands make the pilgrimage to the tombs on the annual commemoration of Joshua's death, 26th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. Israeli Palestinian conflict. According to the United Nations OCHA, three local residents were killed during the First Intifada and one during the Second Intifada. 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. On 14 March 2013, 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. 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. 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. 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.