Bet Alpha in Wikipedia
Beit Alfa (Hebrew: בֵּית אַלְפָא) is a kibbutz in the Northern
District of Israel, near the Gilboa ridge.
History
The kibbutz was founded in 1922 by Hashomer Hatzair
volunteers. In 1940 some of the members, affiliated with
Hashomer Hatzair, moved to Ramat Yohanan kibbutz, in
exchange for supporters of Mapai from Ramat Yohanan.
On the 1st of April 1948 the kibbutz was attacked by Arab
mortar fire. The Arabs withdrew as a platoon from the 1st
parachute battalion of the British 6th Airborne Division
approached.[1]
The Kibbutz dairy was the first Israeli dairy to use robotic
milking technology.
The Beit Alfa Synagogue National Park, located at the nearby
kibbutz Heftziba, contains an ancient Byzantine-era
synagogue, with a mosaic floor depicting the lunar Hebrew
months as they correspond to the signs of the zodiac.[2][3]
Controversy
One of Beit Alfa's main industries is riot control equipment
that has been the subject of some controversy. The equipment
has been sold to regimes that some accuse of abusing human
rights. During the 1980s, Beit Alfa sold water cannon to the
apartheid regime in South Africa.[4][5] Officials from Beit
Alfa have defended the sale of their equipment to human-
rights abusing regimes, on the grounds that compared with
live ammunition, water cannons save lives of demonstrators
who otherwise might be shot dead with live ammunition.[6]
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