It has been suggested that the village was "apparently connected with an ancient Mizpeh,"[5][6] although this has not been borne out by modern archaeology.[7]
Pottery sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found here,[7] and a village by the name of "Kfar Shu" appears in 17th century tax records.[9]
In 1838 Um Safah was noted as a Muslim village in the Beni Zaid district.[10]
In 1870, Victor Guérin climbed up on the hilltop which Umm Safa occupied, and found that the village had about 300 inhabitants. He further noted that: "It must go back to an ancient site as is shown by the materials used in the building of some houses and several columnar sections scattered about the ground. A copious spring, called Ain Umm Safa, provides the villagers with water. They venerate, under a koubbeh, the remains of Nabi Hanan."[11] An official Ottoman village list from about the same year, 1870, listed Kefr Eschwa as having 24 houses and a population of 120, though the population count included men, only. It was noted as being located north of Dschibija.[12][13]
In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Umm Suffah (also called Kefr Ishwah) as "a village on high ground on the Roman road to Antipatris. It contains a small mosque or Moslem chapel, and has a well to the north."[5]
Tomb of Nabi Hanun
Located within the village is the mosque of a-Nabi Hanun, which includes an unmarked grave said to belong to a local Muslim saint of the same name. The mosque was built in 1986 following the destruction of the previous tomb housing the remains. Local tradition says that Nabi Hanun and Nabi Sair, whose grave was in the western part of the village, were both sons of Yaqub (Jacob).[14]
In the 1945 statistics, the population of Umm Safa (Kafr Ishwa) was 110 Muslims,[17] while the total land area was 4,083 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[18] Of this, 1,364 dunums were used for plantations and irrigable land, 821 for cereals,[19] while 17 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[20]
After the 1995 accords, 16% of village land has been defined as Area B land, while the remaining 84% is Area C. Israel has confiscated a total of 227 dunams of land from the village in order to construct two Israeli settlements: Ateret and Hallamish.[22]
A house burned by Israeli settlers in Umm Safa June 2023
In June 2023, the village was attacked by dozens of settlers who burned houses and vehicles [23]
^Tal, Uri (2023). Muslim Shrines in Eretz Israel: History, Religion, Traditions, Folklore. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi. p. 186. ISBN978-965-217-452-9.
^Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p. 17
