Afula birni ne na Isra'ila da ke a yankin arewa, wanda ake yawan kira da ‘Babban Birnin Kwari’ saboda wurinsa mai muhimmanci a cikin Kwarin Jezreel (Marj ibn ‘Amer).
Afula is an Israeli city in the northern district often known as the ‘Capital of the Valley’ due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley (Marj ibn ‘Amer).
An an kafa shi a shekarar 1925 ta hannun ’yan mazauna Zionist bayan sayen manyan filaye (dunam 60,000) na ƙasar Larabawa daga hannun mallakan Larabawa da ba sa zama a ƙasar, dangin Sursuk na Beirut, ta hannun Yehoshua Hankin (1864–1945), ɗan gwagwarmaya haifaffen Rasha wanda ke da alhakin mafi yawan manyan sayen ƙasa da Jewish Colonial Association ta yi a ƙarshen zamanin Daular Usmaniyya da farkon zamanin Mandate na Falasɗinu. Waɗannan filaye sun zama wurin kafa sabbin mazaunan Zionist da yawa, ciki har da Nahlal na Dayan, Giva, Ein Harod, Kfar Yehezkel, Beit Alfa da Tel Yosef, matsugunan da suka maye gurbin ƙauyukan Falasɗinawa da yawa waɗanda suka ɓace daga taswira, wasu daga cikinsu Dayan ya ambata a sama.
It was founded in 1925 by Zionist settlers after the purchase of large tracts (60,000 dunums) of Arab land from the Arab absentee landlords of the Sursuk family in Beirut by Yehoshua Hankin (1864–1945), the Russian-born activist who was responsible for most of the major land purchases for the Jewish Colonial Association in late Ottoman Palestine and early Mandatory Palestine. These tracts became the site of numerous new Zionist colonies, including Dayan’s Nahlal, Giva, Ein Harod, Kfar Yehezkel, Beit Alfa and Tel Yosef, settlements which replaced several Palestinian villages that disappeared from the map, some of which are mentioned by Dayan above.
Ƙaddarar sunan Afula, wanda masu mulkin mallaka na Zionist suka sa wa wurin, ta samo asali ne daga sunan ƙauyen Larabawa na Falasdinu na al-Fuleh, wanda a shekara ta 1226 masanin ƙasa Bature Larabci Yaqut al-Hamawi ya ambata a matsayin gari a lardin Jund Filastin. Sunan al-Fuleh a Larabci ya samo asali ne daga kalmar ful, ma'ana wake (fava beans), wanda yana cikin tsoffin shuke-shuken abinci a Gabas ta Tsakiya kuma Falasdinawan yankin sun noma shi sosai a Marj Ibn ‘Amer. Ƙauyen Falasdinu na al-Fuleh kansa an kwashe mazaunansa a lokacin mulkin Burtaniya. Filayen al-Fuleh masu girman dunam 9500, wanda kuma ya zama wurin da aka kafa ƙauyen Yahudawa na Merhavya, sun nuna farkon gwagwarmaya mai zafi tsakanin 'yan asalin Falasdinu da masu mulkin mallaka na Zionist kan haƙƙin manoman haya na Falasdinu waɗanda aka kora daga ƙasashensu, wannan kuma ya kai ga barkewar tawayen manoma na Falasdinu a shekarun 1936‒1939. Berl Katznelson, ɗaya daga cikin shugabannin jam'iyyar Mapai mafi shahara kuma mafi tasiri, yana tunani a kan muhawarorin Zionist na "canja wuri" (transfer), inda ya faɗi wannan a wata muhawara a Babban Taron Duniya na Ihud Po'alei Tzion (babban dandalin ƙungiyar ma'aikata ta Zionist ta duniya), a watan Agusta 1937:
The etymology of the Zionist settler toponym Afula is derived from the name of the Palestinian Arab village al-Fuleh, which in 1226 Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned as being a town in the province of Jund Filastin. The Arabic toponym al-Fuleh is derived from the word ful, for fava beans, which are among the oldest food plant in the Middle East and were widely cultivated by local Palestinians in Marj Ibn ‘Amer. The Palestinian village of al-Fuleh itself was depopulated during the Mandatory period. The 9500 dunums of land of al-Fuleh, which also became the site of the Jewish settlement of Merhavya, marked the beginning of a bitter struggle between the indigenous Palestinians and Zionist colonists over the rights of Palestine tenant farmers who had been evicted and eventually led to the eruption of the Palestrina peasant-based rebellion in 1936‒1939. Reflecting on the internal Zionist ‘transfer’ debates, Berl Katznelson, one of the most popular and influential leaders of the dominant Mapai party, had this to say in a debate at the World Convention of Ihud Po’alei Tzion (the highest forum of the dominant Zionist world labour movement), in August 1937:
Batun canja wurin jama'a ya haifar da muhawara a tsakaninmu:
The matter of population transfer has provoked a debate among us:
Shin halal ne ko haramun ne? Lamirina na bayyana sarai a wannan fanni. "Makwabci mai nisa ya fi abokin gaba na kusa." Ba za su rasa komai ba daga cikinta. A karshe dai, wannan gyara ne na siyasa da sulhu, mai amfani ga bangarorin biyu. Na dade ina ganin wannan ita ce mafi kyawun dukkan mafita...
Is it permitted or forbidden? My conscience is absolutely clear in this respect. A remote neighbour is better than a close enemy. They [the Palestinians] will not lose from it. In the final analysis, this is a political and settlement reform for the benefit of both parties. I have long been of the opinion that this is the best of all solutions ...
Koyaushe na yi imani kuma har yanzu ina imani cewa an ƙaddara za a mayar da su zuwa Siriya ko Iraƙi. (An ambata a cikin Masalha 1992: 71)
I have always believed and still believe that they were destined to be transferred to Syria or Iraq. (Cited in Masalha 1992: 71)
A year later, at the Jewish Agency's Executive Committee of June 1938, Katznelson reiterated his support for a wholesale and 'compulsory transfer' of the Palestinians and added: 'Regarding the transfer of Arab individuals, we are always doing this' (cited in Masalha 1992: 114). In the early 1940s Katzelson reminded his colleagues in Mapai that the wholesale evacuation of the Palestinians was the continuation of a natural process that had begun when Zionist settlers had displaced Arab tenant farmers and residents with the establishment of Kibbutz Merhavya on the land of al-Fuleh which had led to a small-scale Arab 'transfer' (Masalha 1992: 130).
A year later, at the Jewish Agency’s Executive Committee of June 1938, Katznelson reiterated his support for a wholesale and ‘compulsory transfer’ of the Palestinians and added: ‘Regarding the transfer of Arab individuals, we are always doing this’ (cited in Masalha 1992: 114). In the early 1940s Katzelson reminded his colleagues in Mapai that the wholesale evacuation of the Palestinians was the continuation of a natural process that had begun when Zionist settlers had displaced Arab tenant farmers and residents with the establishment of Kibbutz Merhavya on the land of al-Fuleh which had led to a small-scale Arab ‘transfer’ (Masalha 1992: 130).