Kafr Lam
| Kafr Lam | |
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The fortress of Kafr Lam as seen from the southeast
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 Kafr Lam
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| Arabic | كفر لام |
| Name meaning | The village of Lam |
| Also spelled | Kfar Lam |
| Subdistrict | Haifa |
| Coordinates | 32°38′14.61″N 34°56′03.75″E / 32.6373917°N 34.9343750°ECoordinates: 32°38′14.61″N 34°56′03.75″E / 32.6373917°N 34.9343750°E |
| Palestine grid | 144/227 |
| Population | 340 (1944-45) |
| Area | 6,838 dunams |
| Date of depopulation | July 16, 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Secondary cause | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Current localities | HaBonim,Ein Ayala |
Kafr Lam (Arabic: كفر لام) was a Palestinian Arab village located 26 kilometres (16 mi) south of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. The name of the village was shared with that of an Islamic fort constructed there early on in the period of Arab Caliphate rule (638-1099 CE) in Palestine. To the Crusaders, both the fort and the village, which they controlled for some time in the 13th century, were known as Cafarlet.
Kafr Lam was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. While the village was largely destroyed, some of its former structures and their ruins can be seen in the Israeli moshav of HaBonim, established on the lands of Kafr Lam in 1949.
According to the Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, the town of Kafr Lam was established near Qisarya by the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn ´Abd al-Malik (A.D. 724-743). The fort, constructed in the castra form, was erected during early Abbasid, or late Umayyad rule to guard against invasion from the Byzantine empire.
Kfar Lam was a fiefdom of the lord of Caesarea during the Crusader era in Palestine, and was known at this time as Cafarlet. In 1200 Kafr Lam, under the name of Kafarletum, was mentioned as a fief, held by Soquerius al-Shuwayki, from the Lords of Caesarea, Aymar de Lairon.
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