As the war in Gaza captures headlines, there’s another battle over land in the so-called occupied territories of Judea and Samaria, which much of the world considers the West Bank. Some in this region see their grapevines as a key weapon in their battle.
Just south of Jerusalem, in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, sits Tekoa, where the ancient prophet Amos lived and foretold that the mountains shall drip with wine.
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CBN News traveled to Tekoa, to the vineyard of Yoni and Gadi Afik. They’re answering the prophetic call of Amos to replant the vines in the hills of Judea.
However, modern-day Tekoa stands on the front lines of a very different kind of battle, a battle for the heart and soil of the land of Israel.
Yoni Afik told us, “Agriculture and farms, trees and vineyards at the border – they are like the border between us and our neighbors.”
His brother Gadi asserted, “If you’re not planting, you’re losing your ground.”
The brothers are strengthening Israel’s frontiers, one vine at a time.
Yoni encouraged us, ” Look around you. We are right on the border between the village, Tekoa, and the new vineyard.”
The brothers believe that the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria was given to Israel by God, to settle it peacefully by cultivating the land.
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Gadi explained, “Every day (we) work here to guard and keep and watch our lands.”
Yet, on October 7th, 2023, both brothers were called up to the Israel Defense Forces to join the war against Hamas and Hezbollah, trading pruning forks for rifles.
“I got a call from my unit, and they said, ‘We need you,” Yoni recalled. “We didn’t want it, and we wanted to do agriculture.”
During Gadi’s 230-day military service, his wife Chava and their five children kept the frontline vineyards alive.
She admitted that they were terrified and exhausted, but the children learned farming, living out what the prophet said.
Last month, Israel’s government approved a symbolic resolution to once again take control of Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, which have been under an Israeli military administration since the victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The brothers believe they’re partnering with prophecy, according to Amos 9:14:
“I will bring back the captives of My people Israel. They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. I will plant them in their land, and they shall no longer be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God.”
Every vine they plant is more than agriculture. It’s rooting Israel’s future deep into the land.
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Gadi contended, “It’s a very deep and spiritual relationship between the grapevine and the people of Israel.”
Our nation was divorced for 2000 years,” Yoni noted. “You can’t divorce from your land. You can’t divorce from your story.”
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Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
