Afik () is an

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

organized as a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

. It was established in 1972 close to the abandoned

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

n village of Fiq following Israel's capture and occupation of the Golan Heights in the 1973

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

. In , it had a population of .. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights illegal under international law, while the Israeli government disputes this.

Etymology

Afiq literally means channel, riverbed. The name is derived from the Arab name Fiq and the ancient Biblical city Afeq.Website of Golan Regional Council
, 10 March 2008 (in Hebrew)

Name and biblical Aphek

There are multiple locations called Aphek in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, and the location of the kibbutz was believed to be adjacent to the ruins of the ancient Aphek mentioned in the

Books of Kings The Book of Kings (, ''Sefer (Hebrew), Sēfer Malik, Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Is ...

(), which tells how

King Ahab Ahab (; ; ; ; ) was a king of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), the son and successor of King Omri, and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. He is depicted in the Bible as a Baal worshipper and is criticized for causi ...

of Israel defeated

Ben-Hadad I Ben-Hadad I (), son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, was king of Aram-Damascus between 885 BCE and 865 BCE. Ben-Hadad I was reportedly a contemporary of kings Baasha of the Kingdom of Israel and Asa of the Kingdom of Judah. According to ...

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

and the prophet

Elisha Elisha was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a Jewish prophet and a wonder-worker. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, Ełishe (Yeghishe/Elisha) via Armenian or Alyasa via Arabic, a ...

foretold that King Jehoash of Israel would defeat Ben-Hadad III of Damascus three times. Archaeologists however lately favour Tel 'En Gev/Khirbet el-'Asheq within Kibbutz Ein Gev as the site of biblical Aphek.

History

Kibbutz Afik, affiliated with

Ihud HaKvutzot VeHaKibbutzim The Kibbutz Movement (, ''HaTnu'a HaKibbutzit'') is the largest settlement movement for kibbutzim in Israel. It was formed in 1999 by a partial merger of the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi and is made up of approximately 230 kibbutzim. I ...

, was established near the site of the abandoned

n village of Fiq on 8 May 1972. It falls under the municipal jurisdiction of the Golan Regional Council, and the Fik Airfield is located nearby.

Economy

Economic branches include agriculture (seasonal vegetables, pulses, and fruit orchards), dairy cattle and chicken coops. The kibbutz also operates several factories in partnership with

Yifat Yifat (, more accurately romanized as "Yif'at") is a kibbutz in Galilee, northern Israel. Located adjacent to the town Migdal HaEmek and short distances from the cities of Afula and Nazareth. It falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Re ...

such as Afic Printing Solutions, which produces toners and ink cartridges. Afik shares ownership of Hamat Gader, a hot mineral springs health resort, with three other kibbutzim. Another source of employment is the Orhan Afik guesthouse.

Notable people

* Shimon Sheves (born 1952), Israeli political strategic advisor

References