Making the desert bloom

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The Negev Desert in Southern Israel/Palestine.

Making the desert bloom is a Zionist slogan. It often refers to Israeli afforestation and agricultural projects.

Background[edit]

Main article: Biodiversity in Israel and Palestine

The Levant has long had settled agriculture, being a part of the Fertile Crescent. Crop domestication is said to have arisen in the Southern Levant around 11,000 BCE.[1] Under the Ottoman Empire, Palestine operated under the musha’ system, which relied on a clan structure to rotate plots based on soil fertility and other natural factors to ensure an equivalency based on quality of the earth.[2][3] After the Land Code of 1858, communal rights continued to be enabled by the existence of miri land, which allowed the release of land from the Ottoman government to be formally owned by a clan's sheik and worked by fellahin.[3]

The climate of the Levant is varied and includes the marshes and scrublands of Mediterranean zones (dry, hot summers with short, rainy winters), the Steppes, the desert, consisting of the Negev and Judean Desert, and lastly tropical microclimates inside the Judean Desert. Most of the endemic flora in these areas of the Levant, aside from crops like cereals, olives and citrus, are in the form of forests, Lotus and herbaceous vegetation, and shrubs.[4] Around 47.6% of the land is arable.[5] By 1945, 30% of land was cultivated by around 60% of the rural, non-nomadic Palestinian population.[6]

First usage[edit]

The first usage of the term is traced back to 1969, when former Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol said in a speech: “What are the Palestinians? When I came here there were 250,000 non-Jews, mainly Arabs and Bedouins. It was desert. More than underdeveloped. Nothing. It was only after we made the desert bloom that they became interested in taking it from us.”[7]

Ideological basis[edit]

Depictions by Europeans[edit]

Main article: A land without a people for a people without a land
Outside of Jerusalem, 1865.

The land was described by many early Zionists and foreign visitors to the area as desolate. In 1902, Theodor Herzl portrayed the landscape in his novel Altneuland, which was modeled after his trip to Palestine in 1898:

The landscape through which they passed was a picture of desolation. The low-lands were mostly sand and swamp, the lean fields looked as if burnt over. The inhabitants of the blackish Arab villages looked like brigands. Naked children played in the dirty alleys. Over the distant horizon loomed the deforested hills of Judea. The bare slopes and the bleak, rocky valleys showed some traces of present or former cultivation.

40 years earlier, Mark Twain provided an account of the scenery on the way to Jerusalem in his humorous travel book, The Innocents Abroad:

We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent, mournful expanse, wherein we saw only three persons—Arabs ... The further we went the hotter the sun got, and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became. There could not have been more fragments of stone strewn broadcast over this part of the world ... There was hardly a tree or a shrub any where. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem.

Photograph of the gardens of Jaffa.

However, descriptions of the coast differ, such as Sir Fredrick Treves' recounting of the various gardens and forests of Jaffa: "the town, except where it fronts the sea, is hemmed around by orange gardens, and the green of the orange tree never falters or grows dim." He also notes the hedges of prickly pear and groves of sycamore, locust, oleander, cedar, and olive that adorn the streets, and how in spring, the path to Jerusalem is filled with flowers.[8]

Ahad Ha'am, in an article called Truth from Eretz Israel, similarly spoke of cultivation and vegetation within Palestine:

From abroad, we are accustomed to believe that Eretz Israel is presently almost totally desolate, a uncultivated desert, and that anyone wishing to buy land there can come and buy all he wants. But in truth that is not so. In the entire land, it is hard to find tillable land that is not already tilled [...] Not the peasants alone, but the owners of large properties as well, do not easily part with good land that has no drawbacks. Many of our people who came to buy land have been in Eretz Israel for months, and have toured its length and width, without finding what they seek.

In this piece, he also repudiated the common claim that those living there, cultivating the land, did so mindlessly: "From abroad we are accustomed to believing that the Arabs are all desert savages, like donkeys, who neither see nor understand what goes on around them. But this is a big mistake. The Arab, like all children of Shem, has a sharp intellect and is very cunning."[9]

Halutz and Jewish labor[edit]

The ideological basis for this phrase is rooted in the concept of the halutz. Early Zionism, as the negation of the diaspora, held the stance that Jews living in Eastern Europe had become weakened, culturally inferior, and rootless due their unsettled position between assimilation and anti-antisemitism and thus, required the creation of nation for Jews.[10][11] In an attempt to reverse this "rootless cosmopolitan" state, the halutz, or the pioneering Jewish laborer who works the land, was born as a means to foster the "muscular Jew."[12][13] It was believed that principally Jewish labor could transform the land and that principally agricultural labor could transform the Jewish people.[13]

In practice[edit]

Afforestation[edit]

The key actor in the afforestation of the region was the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Since 1901, they have planted over 250 million trees, developed 250,000 acres of land, and established over 1,000 parks.[14] The JNF purposefully chose Aleppo pine, as well as cypress and eucalyptus, as a tree that would work reasonably well with the climate and be familiar for the European Jewish population, thereby "beautifying" the land.[15][16][17] By 1960, 85% of all trees planted by the JNF were coniferous.[18] Later on, realizing they needed to diversify the forests, the JNF invested in other coniferous species, like Turkish pine and Stone pine, as well as deciduous and other species, like carobs, acacia, tamarisk, and palms.[15] As of 2008, 44% of the trees in Israel are pine, and endemic plants make up only 11% of forests.[18][16]

Kibbutzim[edit]

Main article: Kibbutz

The concept of Halutzim manifested in the form of kibbutzim and the kibbutz system became a means of connecting the new Jewish population who had came in the second and third aliyah to the land.[19] The first kibbutz was established in 1910.[20] By the time World War II broke out, there were 79 kibbutzim, consisting of 24,105 people and in 1950, the number had almost tripled with around 65,000 kibbutznikim.[21] The kibbutz movement peaked in 1989, with a population of around 129,000.[22] A large portion of kibbutznikim were young students.[13]

The kibbutzim also became a way for the expansion of settlements. Early on, Mizrahi Jews were often placed at the peripheral of Zionist settlements, sometimes leading to conflict caused by coerced placement there.[23] It also saw the inclusion of women in quasi-manual labor jobs such as in tree nurseries, which also were often placed at the peripheries, pushing for expansion.[12]

Irrigation[edit]

Criticism[edit]

The term has been criticized by anti-Zionists[who?] as playing into the Orientalist idea that Arab and Western Asian countries are uncivilized until Western interference.[24] Up until the 1990s, many Zionists[who?] held the opinion that there was degradation of the land that was due to the backwardness of Palestinians.[12][25] Palestinian climate activist Manal Shqair wrote in Jacobin magazine that the concept of "making the desert bloom" was a form of "energy colonialism" by Israel. In this article, he also argues that "making the desert bloom" devalues land that is minimally productive as well.[26]

The JNF has repeatably been criticized by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel[27] and the Palestine Museum of Natural History,[28] for its extensive use of non-native plants, implementing afforestation in ecologically inappropriate areas, and aggressive planting practices, which has led to increased disease among trees, forest fires, and waning biodiversity in the fragile shrub lands.[29][30][31][25] The JNF has also been criticized by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions,[32] Code Pink,[33] BADIL,[34] Amnesty International,[35] and others for building forests and national parks over displaced Palestinian villages and olive groves, as well as actively taking part in the eviction of Palestinians from their homes and annexation of land which has left many families landless.[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Zeder, Melinda A. (October 2011). "The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East". Current Anthropology. 52 (S4): S221–S235. doi:10.1086/659307. ISSN 0011-3204. S2CID 8202907.
  2. ^ Kark, Ruth & Grossman, David & Grossman, Kark. (2003). The communal (musha') village of the Middle East and North Africa Introduction -Definitions and Concepts. 223-236.
  3. ^ a b Kushner, David; Kushner, David S., eds. (1986). Palestine in the late Ottoman period: political, social and economic transformation. Jerusalem: Yad Izhad Ben-Zvi [u.a.] ISBN 978-90-04-07792-8.
  4. ^ Hubbard, George D. (1951). "Agriculture in Palestine". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 10 (3): 247–268. doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.1951.tb00050.x. ISSN 0002-9246. JSTOR 3483870.
  5. ^ "Israel", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2023-11-01, retrieved 2023-11-05
  6. ^ George, Alan (1979-01-01). ""Making the Desert Bloom" A Myth Examined". Journal of Palestine Studies. 8 (2): 88–100. doi:10.2307/2536511. ISSN 0377-919X. JSTOR 2536511.
  7. ^ Herbert, Mason (1970). Reflections on the Middle East crisis (2019 ed.). Walter de Gruyter. p. 120. ISBN 978-3111164410.
  8. ^ Sir Fredrick, Treves (1912). The Land That Is Desolate. Smith, Elder & Co.
  9. ^ Dowty, Alan; Ha’am, Ahad; Ginzberg, Asher (2000). "Much Ado about Little: Ahad Ha'am's "Truth from Eretz Yisrael," Zionism, and the Arabs". Israel Studies. 5 (2): 154–181. ISSN 1084-9513. JSTOR 30245555.
  10. ^ Schweid, Eliezer; Hadary, Amnon; Levin, Leonard (2008). The idea of modern Jewish culture. Reference library of Jewish intellectual history. Boston (Mass.): Academic studies press. ISBN 978-1-934843-05-5.
  11. ^ Schweid, Eliezer (1969). The Relations Between Homeland and Diaspora As Seen in Zionist Ideology (PDF). American Jewish Committee.
  12. ^ a b c Braverman, Irus (2009). "Planting the Promised Landscape: Zionism, Nature, and Resistance in Israel/Palestine". Natural Resources Journal. University of New Mexico School of Law – via Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law.
  13. ^ a b c University of Haifa (Israel); Yankelevitch, Esther (2018-06-30). "Creating a National Identity through Agricultural Education in Mandatory Palestine". Polish Political Science Yearbook. 2 (47): 346–354. doi:10.15804/ppsy2018213. S2CID 158836326.
  14. ^ "JNF Forestry and Green Innovations". Jewish National Fund. Archived from the original on 16 October 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  15. ^ a b Kraft, Dina (2011-01-12). "After fire, what types of trees are best suited for Israel?". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  16. ^ a b Pappé, Ilan (2007). The ethnic cleansing of Palestine (Repr ed.). Oxford: Oneworld Publ. ISBN 978-1-85168-555-4.
  17. ^ Polley, Gabriel (2020). 'Palestine is Thus Brought Home to England': The Representation of Palestine in British Travel Literature, 1840-1914. ProQuest 2699042799.
  18. ^ a b "Forest Facts & Figures - Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - KKL-JNF". KKL-JNF. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  19. ^ Peres, Shimʿon (2017). No room for small dreams: courage, imagination, and the making of modern Israel. New York: Custom House. ISBN 978-0-06-256145-9.
  20. ^ Abramitzky, Ran (March 2011). "Lessons from the Kibbutz on the Equality-Incentives Trade-Off". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 25 (1): 185–208. doi:10.1257/jep.25.1.185.
  21. ^ Raider, Mark A. (1995). "The Kibbutz in Historical Perspective: A Review Essay". Modern Judaism. 15 (2): 207–210. doi:10.1093/mj/15.2.207. ISSN 0276-1114.
  22. ^ "מה קורה לוותיקי החברים אחרי שהקיבוץ הופרט? לא משהו טוב" [What happens after kibbutz members veterans privatized? Not something good]. הארץ (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  23. ^ Kemp, Adriana (2002). "State Power and Everyday Resistance in the Israeli Frontier". Mizrahim in Israel: A Critical Observation into Israel's Ethnicity (in Hebrew). Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Hakibbutz Hameuchad.
  24. ^ "Myth: Israel made the desert bloom | Decolonize Palestine". decolonizepalestine.com. 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  25. ^ a b Reader, The MIT Press (2020-08-24). "Of Deserts and Decolonization: Dispelling Myths About Drylands". The MIT Press Reader. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  26. ^ Shqair, Manal. "No, Israel Is Not Making the Desert Bloom". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  27. ^ Israel, Nature (2020-02-27). "Thoughts About Tu B'shvat & Planting Trees". Nature Israel. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  28. ^ Baker, Catherine (2023-08-13). "Film Uncovers Truth About JNF's Tree Planting in Israel". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
  29. ^ "Tell the JNF to cease and desist planting trees to displace Palestinians!". CODEPINK - Women for Peace. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  30. ^ Liphshiz, Cnaan (2022-01-13). "Invasive species, protests and forest fires: How planting a tree in Israel became controversial". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  31. ^ Tal, Alon (2002). "The Forest's Many Shades of Green". Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel. University of California Press.
  32. ^ UK, ICAHD (2022-03-11). "Opposition to the Jewish National Fund". ICAHD. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  33. ^ "Tell the JNF to cease and desist planting trees to displace Palestinians!". CODEPINK - Women for Peace. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  34. ^ "Al-Majdal". BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  35. ^ "Human rights in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories". Amnesty International. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  36. ^ "The Jewish National Fund Should Stop Trying to Kick a Palestinian Family Out of Their Home". Haaretz. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  37. ^ SLEIMAN, Sara. "Palestinian villages erased by the Jewish National Fund". Palestinian villages erased by the Jewish National Fund. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  38. ^ "The role of the JNF in greenwashing Israeli settler-colonialism - Spring". springmag.ca. 2022-01-28. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  39. ^ "JNF Set to Approve Plan That Could Lead to Palestinians' Eviction". Haaretz. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  40. ^ "Israel Recruited the Jewish National Fund to Secretly Buy Palestinian Land for Settlers". Haaretz. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  41. ^ "Community | The JNF Is Helping The Israeli Government Steal A Palestinian Family's House". The Forward. 2018-02-07. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  42. ^ Pappé, Ilan (2007). The ethnic cleansing of Palestine (Repr ed.). Oxford: Oneworld Publ. ISBN 978-1-85168-555-4.
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