Located in the Jezreel Valley, Afula is roughly halfway between Jenin and Nazareth. It is mentioned in the Books of Kings (2 Kings 5, 24) in connection with Elisha and the disciple of Elijah, who lived in the vicinity.
The 12th-century sultan Saladin founded an Arab village named al-Fulah on the site. In 1226, Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned it as being "a town in Jund Filastin," and formerly a Crusader castle between Zir'in and Nazareth. In 1799, during Napoleon's Syrian campaign, the Battle of Mount Tabor was fought around al-Fulah.
In 1909 or 1910, Yehoshua Hankin completed his first major purchase in the Jezreel Valley. He bought some 10,000 dunams (10 km2) of land in Al-Fuleh (now Afula), which became the home of Merhavia and Tel Adashim. This purchase also marked the start of bitter disputes between Arabs and Jews over the rights of tenant farmers who had been evicted, and regarding the employment of Jewish or Arab watchmen for the land.
The modern community of Afula was founded in 1925 by the American Zionist Commonwealth, after the completion of the purchase of the valley from the Sursuk family of Beirut. Only a quarter of the one hundred Arab families who had lived in the area left of their own free will. At the time, the community was served by the Jezreel Valley railroad, which was abandoned during the War of Independence
