Zalafa
Zalafa (, ) is an Arab village in Israel's Haifa District. The village is in the Wadi Ara area of the northern Triangle, northeast of Umm al-Fahm. Since 1996, it has been under the jurisdiction of the Ma'ale Iron local council whose headquarters is in the village. The village is divided into three neighborhoods: East, West and al-Murtafi'a. In mid-2016, Zalafa's population was 4,639, all of whom are Muslim. History According to archeological evidence, Zalafa location has been settled continuously since the Iron Age, but with a decline in the Ottoman era. Building foundations, burial tombs, potsherds from the Byzantine era and an ancient well can be found under the village. Ottoman and British Mandate periods According to local tradition, Zalafa was established in the mid-17th century by people from the nearby town of Umm al-Fahm. However, contrary to that, in 1870, French explorer Victor Guérin found the village "almost completely deserted", and in the 1870s it was described as "a small ruined village with a well" by the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP). In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya of Shafa al-Gharby. The village's clay and straw houses were built close