Kanaker was settled by Druze from Mount Lebanon in 1862 and by 1867, the Abu Ras family, a prominent Druze clan and ally of the al-Atrash family, had gained control of the village.[4] When the chief of the al-Atrash, Ismail Pasha, stayed a night at Kanaker, he massacred its Christian inhabitants before launching an attack on the Christian forces of the Shihab dynasty at Rashaya in Lebanon.[5] Kanaker continued to be inhabited by Druze through 1883 and a certain time beyond.[6]
During the Syrian civil war, on 27 July 2011, the Syrian human rights groups reported that eight or eleven people were killed during a Syrian Army raid in Kanaker and about 250 people were arrested. Four tanks and a bulldozer reportedly entered the village while another 14 tanks surrounded the place.[7] The rebels surrendered the village in December 2016 and turned themselves in to the Syrian Army. In exchange, they had their status legalized.[8][9]
Some Jordanians from 3 villages in the north of the country, Irbid province (Kharja, Saham and Al nu'aimah) have the surname Kanakri. This relates them to Kanaker. These families migrated from Kanaker-Syria down south to Jordan in the 19th century before the two countries had been issuing their independence and new borders. Of note, some of the families that migrated to present-day Jordan, are from Damascus proper.
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