'Afula, named for the Arab village of…

'Afula, named for the Arab village of Al-'Affula formerly at this site in the Jezreel Valley, and sometimes called 'Ir Yizre'el ("City of Jezreel"), is founded in 1925 on lands acquired by the American Zion Commonwealth Company, a private land-development organization, and is the first planned urban settlement of Jewish Palestine.

Private capital elicits vigorous expansion of citrus plantations on the coastal plain and sustains the establishment of a string of Jewish villages here.