About two km east of Kafr Malik, at ''
'Ain Samiya'' (grid: 1817/1550), are buildings, possibly dating to the
Crusader era. Kafr Malik has been identified with the village
Caphermelic of the
Crusader period. 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, 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 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. 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. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described
Kefr Malik as: "a village of moderate size on high ground." In 1896 the population of
Kefr Malik was estimated to be about 870 persons.
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, increasing in the
1931 census to 972; 922 Muslims and 20 Christians, in 217 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population was 1,100; 1,080 Muslims and 20 Christians, while the total land area was 52,196
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,580 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 10,984 for cereals, while 53 dunams were classified as built-up areas.
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.
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. 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", In June 2025, 3 people from Kafr Malik were shot and killed by the
Israeli military after
Israeli settlers attacked the village. ==Footnotes==