Kafr ad-Dik

It has been suggested that this village is the Kafr Bani Hamid of the 1596 Ottoman tax records.[9]

In 1838 it was noted as a village el-Kufr, part of the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[10]

In 1870 Victor Guérin found here very considerable remains. They included two birkets cut in the rock, one 15 paces long by 12 broad, the other not quite so large; about 30 cisterns and 20 tombs cut in the rock, some with sepulchral chambers, their walls pierced with loculi, others simple graves, either intended for a single body or having right and left vaulted tombs with arcosolia. These graves were formerly covered with stone slabs. There were also several lintels, decorated with the rectangular cartouche, on either side of which were triangles, and in the middle a cross. There are four mosques, built with stones and columns belonging to a Christian church. There is also a square tower, measuring 7 paces on each side. It is lit by loopholes, and is covered with immense slabs forming a roof, and supported by vaulted arcades. Within it is a cistern. On the lintel is a cross with equal branches inserted in a circle near four semicircles, which lie in a four-leaved rose. This tower formed part of a larger building, now destroyed.[11]

Guérin noticed houses which were constructed from red and white stone masonry, as in Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima.[12]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described the village as being "of moderate size on the hillside, and an ancient site, having rock-cut tombs to the east."[13]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr al-Dik had a population of 487, all Muslim,[14] increasing in the 1931 census to 665, still all Muslim, in 139 houses.[15]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 870, all Muslims,[16] while the total land area was 15,308 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 2,075 were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,603 for cereals,[18] while 58 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[19]

Protest against Israeli theft of land, Kufr ad-Deek, Palestine, February, 2012

• 
  Kafr ad-Dik 1943 1:20,000
• 
  Kafr ad-Dik 1945 1:250,000

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kafr ad-Dik came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

In 1961, the population was 1,365.[20]

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kafr ad-Dik has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 14.5% of village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 85.5% as Area C. Israel has confiscated land from Kafr ad-Dik for Israeli settlements numerous times, including:

• 594 dunams for Pedu'el,
• 300 dunams for Alei Zahav,
• 144 dunams for Har Alei Zahav, and
• 246 dunams for an industrial zone, near Pedu'el.[21]

After an Israeli court approved the expropriation of 3,000 dunams (750 acres) of private Palestinian land in Kafr ad-Dik's Thahir Subih neighborhood, bulldozers were called in and reportedly uprooted dozens of olive trees and fruit trees while leveling over 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres). The Israel Civil Administration spokesperson said the works related to a state-backed plan to develop the area's agriculture. In Israel's view, the spokesperson added, these are Israeli state lands.[22]