Kabul is an Arab

Arab citizens of Israel

Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....

 town in the North District

North District (Israel)

The Northern District is one of Israel's six administrative districts. The Northern District has a land area of 4,478 km², which increases to 4,638  km² when both land and water are included...

 of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, located 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) southeast of Acre

Acre, Israel

Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....

 and north of Shefa-'Amr

Shefa-'Amr

Shefa-'Amr, also Shfar'am is a predominantly Arab city in the North District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a population of 35,300.-Etymology:...

.

History

Kabul is the Biblical Cabul

Cabul

Cabul is the name of two places in ancient Israel mentioned in the Hebrew Bible:*A district in the north-west of Galilee, near Tyre, containing twenty cities given to Hiram by Solomon as a reward for various services rendered to him in building the temple. Hiram was not pleased with the gift,...

 mentioned by Joshua

Joshua

Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...

. It was assigned to the Tribe of Asher

Tribe of Asher

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Asher! was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...

 (Joshua 19:27). King Solomon handed it over to Hiram I

Hiram I

Hiram I , according to the Hebrew Bible, was the Phoenician king of Tyre. He reigned from 980 to 947 BC, succeeding his father, Abibaal. Hiram was succeeded as king of Tyre by his son Baal-Eser I...

, the king of Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

, because he helped Solomon build his temple in Jerusalem. The name "Kabul" derives from the Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 word mekubbal which means "clad", as in the inhabitants were "clad" in gold and silver. In Roman times, Josephus

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

 calls the town "Chabolo" and camped there. He described it as a post from which incursions were made into the Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

.

Al-Muqaddasi

Al-Muqaddasi

Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim .-Biography:Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem in 946 AD...

 visited Kabul in 985 CE, while it was under Abbasid

Abbasid

The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

 rule. He writes that "it is a town in the coastal district. It has fields of sugarcane

Sugarcane

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

s, and they make the best sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 — better than in all the rest of Syria." Ali of Herat

Ali ibn abi bakr al-Harawi

Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi was an early thirteenth century Persian traveller originally from Herat, located in Afghanistan. Born in Mosul, Iraq he travelled far and wide and died in Aleppo, Syria in a fort built for him....

  reports in 1173, that two sons of Jacob

Jacob

Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

 are buried in the town, namely Reuben

Reuben (Bible)

According to the Book of Genesis, Reuben or Re'uven was the first and eldest son of Jacob with Leah. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Reuben.-Etymology:...

 and Simeon

Simeon (Hebrew Bible)

According to the Book of Genesis, Simeon was, the second son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Simeon. However, some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an etiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite...

. Another tradition states that the tomb of Micah

Micah (prophet)

Micah, meaning “who is like Yahweh," was a prophet who prophesied from approximately 737-690 BC in Judah and is the author of the Book of Micah. He was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Hosea and is considered one of the twelve minor prophets of the Tanakh . Micah was from...

 is located here. Kabul was one of the principal cities of Jund al-Urrdun. Its Crusader

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

 name was "Cabor". In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it was a place for Jewish pilgrimage for containing the tombs of the Jewish scholars and philosophers Abraham ibn Ezra

Abraham ibn Ezra

Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....

, Judah Halevi, and Solomon ibn Gabirol

Solomon ibn Gabirol

Solomon ibn Gabirol, also Solomon ben Judah , was an Andalucian Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neoplatonic bent. He was born in Málaga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia.-Biography:...

.

In the late nineteenth century, Kabul was described as a moderate sized village, with olives to the north and south.

The village was captured by Israel on July 15, 1948 during Operation Dekel

Operation Dekel

Operation Dekel , was the largest offensive in the north of Israel after the first truce of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was carried out by the 7th Armoured Brigade, a battalion from the Carmeli Brigade along with some elements from the Golani Brigade between 8–18 July. Its objective was to...

 by the Sheva Brigade. Israeli forces did not attack Kabul and very few of Kabul's residents fled the village. Currently, there are three mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

s in the town. In 1974, it received the status of local council

Local council (Israel)

Local councils are one of the three types of local government found in Israel, with the other two being cities and regional councils. As of 2003, there were 144 local councils in Israel, these being settlements which pass a minimum threshold enough to justify their operations as independent...

 by the Israeli government.

Demographics

In 1859 the population was estimated as being 400. In a 1922 census by the British Mandate of Palestine, Kabul had 365 inhabitants, rising to 457 in 1931. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government office established in 1949 to carry out research and publish statistical data on all aspects of Israeli life, including population, society, economy, industry, education and physical infrastructure.It is headed by a...

, the town of Kabul had a population of 7,134 in 1995, rising to 9,400 in 2005. Its inhabitants are mostly Muslims. Kabul's prominent families are, Rayan, Hamoud, Taha, Taha Mi'ar,morad, hamdony, Ibrahim, Habi, Uthman, 'Ashkar, Sharari, 'Akari, Badran, and Bouqa'i. The town hosts a large number of Internally displaced Palestinians

Internally displaced Palestinians

A present absentee is a Palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in Palestine by Jewish or Israeli forces, before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but who remained within the area that became the state of Israel. Present absentees are also referred to as internally displaced...

 from the nearby destroyed villages of al-Birwa

Al-Birwa

Al-Birwa was a Palestinian Arab village, located east of Acre . Mentioned by Arab geographers in the 11th century, it was known to the Crusaders as Broet. Al-Birwa was captured from the Mamluks by the Ottomans in the 16th century. In the 19th century, it had a mosque, a church, and an elementary...

, al-Damun

Al-Damun

Al-Damun was a Palestinian Arab village located from the city of Acre that was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In 1945, the village had 1,310 inhabitants, most of whom were Muslim, while the remainder were Christians...

, Mi'ar

Mi'ar

Mi'ar was a Palestinian village located 17.5 kilometers east of Acre, depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.-History:...

 and al-Ruways

Al-Ruways

al-Ruways was a Palestinian Arab village of 330 on a rocky hill located southeast of Acre and south of al-Damun.-History:Al-Ruways stood on the site of the Crusader town of Careblier. In 1266, a Crusader vanguard returning from a raid in Tiberias to Acre was ambushed by Mamluk forces based in...

. All of the inhabitants are Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

s, mostly adherents of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

.