According to the Survey of Western Palestine (SWP, 1882), it was possibly the place called Alpha in the list of Thutmes III.

[9][10] 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.

[12] According to Palmer (1881), the place was earlier named in Arabic al-Fuleh ('the beans'),[16] also rendered as El Fuleh, al-Fula etc.

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Al-Fuleh as a small adobe village, "with a few stone houses in the middle.

[19] The villagers themselves sent a petition to the grand vizier complaining of the oppressive use of arbitrary power (tahakkum).

In particular, they claimed that Ilyas Sursuk and a middleman had sold their land to people, whom they called 'Zionists' and 'sons of the religion of Moses,' (siyonist musevi) who were not Ottoman subjects, and that the sale would deprive 1,000 villagers of their livelihoods.

The founders of the kibbutz were members of Hashomer Hatzair who had immigrated from Galicia after World War I and had been living in Haifa, including Eliezer Peri, who later represented Mapam in the Knesset.

The Merhavia Grand Courtyard is today a tourist attraction, its well-preserved original buildings bearing explanatory signs, and housing – among other things – a cafe and a souvenir shop offering hand-made soap and workshops in vintage-style interiors.