Arbel

Arbel (Hebrew: אַרְבֵּל) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located on Mount Arbel next to the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lower Galilee Regional Council. In 2014 its population was 643.

Arbel was established in 1949 by demobilized soldiers on the lands of the depopulated Arab village of Hittin, whose residents fled/were expelled during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was initially a moshav shitufi, but became a moshav ovdim in 1959.

History

Ceramics from the late Roman and Byzantine periods have been found.

In Second Temple period, the village of Arbel was the home of the sage Nittai of Arbela. According to Josephus, Arbel was the site of military operations carried out by the forces of Herod the Great in his conquest of the land from Antigonus II Mattathias.

In 1047 CE, Nasir Khusraw was on a pilgrimage through Palestine, and noted that he came to the village of Irbil, after leaving Hittin, on his way to Tabariyyah. He further noted that "on the south side of [Irbil] rises a mountain; and on the mountain is an enclosure, which same contains four graves -those of the sons of Yacub (Jacob) - .[..] -who were brothers of Yusuff (Joseph) [..] And going onward I came to a hill, and below the hill a cavern, in which was the tomb of the mother of Moses."

Arbel (automobile)

The Arbel (also called Loubières, Loubière, Symétric, Symétric-Paris, or Arbel-Symétric) was a fiber-glass bodied hybrid petrol-electric vehicle produced by the Compagnie Normande d'Etudes pour l'Application de Procédés Mécaniques made as individual models from 1951 to 1953 and again 1957 to 1959. Only a limited number were made throughout the period, mainly for experimentation or prototyping.

First Version - 1951 to 1953

The first Arbel was designed and made by Casimir (Casi) André Loubière, then a 43-year-old car salesman, and financed by his brother Maurice, the owner of an air-transport business, COSARA (Société Transatlantique Aérienne en Extrême Orient), in Indo-China. They initially traded as Les Freres Loubière.

The car was described as a four cylinder 1100cc 45 hp (34 kW) petrol engine that drove four electric motors fitted to the inside of the wheel hubs. It was built of glass and light alloy, weighed 1,8701b, and had windows that were curved and slid into the roof. The brothers stated that they intended the car to be mass-produced and sell for ₤295. It was first shown as the Symétrie at the Geneva Motor Show in 1951, but created little interest.