Metula was founded in 1896 on 12,800 dunams of land bought from a Lebanese Christian from Sidon by Baron de Rothschild's chief officer the previous year. It had been inhabited and cultivated by more than 600 Druze tenant farmers. The tenants received paltry compensation and were driven off the land in the spring of 1896. The settlement suffered prolonged harassment, including the murder of a man in his sleep, from the dislocated families until 1904 when the settlers paid them a further 60,000 francs (3,000 Turkish pounds).