r/JewsOfConscience • u/Roy4Pris Zionism is a waste of Judaism • Mar 27 '24
History In 1939, Palestine's largest crop was Jaffa oranges, with 30,000 hectares under cultivation.
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u/Welcomefriend2023 Post-Zionist Mar 27 '24
Its amazing to how many don't know the Jaffa orange story. I share copies of Ghassan Kanafani's short story, The Land of Sad Oranges, to young Palestinians I know locally.
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u/Roy4Pris Zionism is a waste of Judaism Mar 27 '24
Thanks to u/Welcomefriend2023 for sharing this item with me:
I wanted to know what 30,000 hectares looked like, so I created the rough square in the map above.
That's not all crops. That's *just Jaffa oranges*.
'Thus, contrary to the myth propagated by Israel of an arid, backward and under populated Palestine[3](), Palestinians had a dynamic agricultural sector before the arrival of European Jews. Under the British Mandate, the cultivation of products such as olives, melon, tobacco, grapevines and oranges to name a few, mostly belonged to the Arab Palestinians.[4]()'
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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Mar 27 '24
1939 was already over 50 years in the modern Zionist era and the Jaffa orange industry was heavily Jewish. The term "Jaffa orange" was also coined by the German Templer Christian colony of Sarona.
Thus, contrary to the myth propagated by Israel of an arid, backward and under populated Palestine3, Palestinians had a dynamic agricultural sector before the arrival of European Jews.
The Palestinians of this era were both Arab and Jewish. This was many decades into the major European Jewish immigration period and the associated agricultural boom that came with it.
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u/Roy4Pris Zionism is a waste of Judaism Mar 28 '24
Yes. As the article notes, there were plenty of local Jewish people working side by side with their Arab neighbours in this industry. Nice one. The issue raised is the mass arrival of European Jews.
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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Mar 28 '24
I think you're misunderstanding my point. This wasn't a good situation for Palestinian Arabs since it destroyed their traditional small family farming model. By 1939 the Jaffa orange industry was already commercialized and "Europeanized" by Zionists. Zionists would use these same statistics as a point of pride in "their" accomplishments.
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u/Roy4Pris Zionism is a waste of Judaism Mar 28 '24
Ah yes. Minimise costs, maximise returns. Good old fashioned capitalism!
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u/broncos4thewin Mar 28 '24
Yes, those backward, savage little native Palestinians should have been grateful, right?
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u/wahadayrbyeklo Lebanese Mar 28 '24
No need to go as late as 39.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2536459
Zionists are wrong. They are liars. They always were.
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u/werewolfcat Mar 27 '24
This is probably an over simplification but I believe that Jaffa oranges have especially dense rinds which make the fruit more durable and therefore ideal for export. And this made the industry appealing to the British in the mandate period as the oranges could be stored for long naval voyages.