A boutique winery located in the settlement of Kidmat Zvi in the occupied Syrian Golan.
The winery owns 60 dunams of vineyards in the Syrian Golan, mostly near the settlement of Kidmat Zvi.
The winery is part of the Kedem Wine Village, a tourist complex that includes Assaf Winery, AdiKa coffee house and three vacation cabins for rent. The complex includes a visitor center located in a Syrian building, whose “authentic look” is advertised as a selling point.
The winery has a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. The winery and cabins are also advertised on Booking.com, where they are falsely described as located in “Kidmat Zvi, Israel”.
In 2017, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism approved a 497,364 NIS governmental grant for Assaf Winery to establish 11 vacation suites in Kidmat Zvi. In a letter to Who Profits on 15 November 2018, the Winery stated that the grant was approved, but the winery decided not to receive the money. In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism stated that “The request of ‘Assaf Winery’ for a grant for the construction of a vacation rental was approved last year. As it concerns a long construction procedure, the approval was granted for 5 years, with the money transfer conditioned upon execution on the ground, in phases and in accordance with proven execution. So far, no request has been received from the grantee ‘Assaf Winery’ regarding execution on the ground and the realization of the budget accordingly.”
