Kfar Harif Colony

Kfar Harif is a moshav located in the southern part of occupied Palestine, situated at the boundary between the Shfela region and the coastal plain, approximately 2 kilometers northeast of Kiryat Malakhi. The Harif Stream (Nahal Harif), named after the village, lies to the east, along with several nearby wells.

The moshav was established in late 1956 by Zionist refugees and immigrants from Morocco and was named after Rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi (the “Rif”), a prominent Jewish legal scholar who lived in the city of Fez, Morocco. Later, Zionist immigrants from various Eastern European countries joined the founders.

Kfar Harif was founded on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Masmiyya al-Saghira.

Upon its establishment, the moshav joined the Hamhama’amad HaBeinoní (“Middle Position Sector”) — a group of settlements in which residents paid for the economy they developed, in contrast to most other colonies that received their assets free of charge from the government. Today, the moshav is part of the Farmers’ Union.

In recent years, most residents have worked outside the moshav, although some have maintained the agricultural economy. The main branches of agriculture include orchards, vineyards, floriculture, and poultry farming.

As of 2022, the settlement had a population of 843 settlers.
<

Sources:
Due to the limited availability of Arabic sources, Hebrew sources were used: the settlement’s official Hebrew website, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
For information on the village of al-Masmiyya al-Saghira, the source used is Palestine Remembered.