From the early stages of Zionism to the present, Zionists have propagated the myth that the most important land-bridge in human history (Palestine) has been empty and destitute for two thousand year until it was later developed by the Israeli Jews. As it will be proven below based on British Mandatory statistical books and other sources, this myth about Palestine and its people was concocted to romanticize the "Jewish return and redemption of the Promised Land". Soon you shall find that what was destitute in 1948, still destitute which is a fact that can be easily proven by using Google's Satellite view. Let's get a detailed accounting of the agricultural production in Palestine for the season of 1944-1945, we will directly quote the British Mandate (who prepared two volume books, titled Survey of Palestine, for the United Nations in 1946-7) as follows:
| Palestinian | Jewish | Total | |||||||
| Dunums*** | Tons | Value* | Dunums*** | Tons | Value* | Dunums | Tons | Value* | |
| Grains | 4,152,438 | 193,376 | 4,403,409 | 215,191 | 16,579 | 497,048 | 4,367,629 | 209,955 | 4,900,457 |
| Vegetables | 239,733 | 189,104 | 5,113,553 | 40,207 | 55,730 | 1,745,870 | 279,940 | 244,834 | 6,859,423 |
| Fodder | 23,970 | 20,827 | 156,847 | 119,578 | 176,525 | 951,178 | 143,543 | 197,352 | 1,108,025 |
| Fruits** | 355,709 | 73,320 | 3,139,374 | 37,217 | 21,398 | 1,379,620 | 392,926 | 94,718 | 4,518,994 |
| Olives | 592,546 | 78,287 | 3,320,320 | 7,587 | 1,182 | 53,235 | 600,133 | 79,469 | 3,373,555 |
| Melons | 120,304 | 135,634 | 969,630 | 5,675 | 7,193 | 83,975 | 125,979 | 142,827 | 1,053,605 |
| Total | 5,484,700 | 690,548 | 17,103,133 | 425,455 | 278,607 | 4,710,926 | 5,910,150 | 969,155 | 21,814,059 |
| Percentage | 92.8% | 71.25% | 78.40% | 7.20% | 28.75% | 21.60% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Source: Survey of Palestine,
prepared by the British Mandate for the United Nations, p. 323-327
* Value in Palestinian Pound
** Non-citrus fruits. Note Citrus production=248,274 dunums of
which 120,897 dunums were Jewish owned (Supplement
to Survey
of Palestine, p. 37)
*** One Dunum = 1,000 sq. meters.
Click here to view the
exact scanned pages from Survey of Palestine
that we extracted the data was from.
Let's contemplate the following lands statistics about Palestine (based on CIA's WorldFact Book) before we draw any conclusions.
| Land Statistics | Value |
| Total land | 26,000.0 sq. km. = 20,000 (Israel) + 6,000 (W. Bank & Gaza Strip) |
| Arable land | 4,420.0 sq. km. = 17% * 26,000 sq. km. |
| Lands planted by Jews | 425.4 sq. km. = 425,455 /1000 |
| Lands planted by Palestinians | 5,484.7 sq. km. = 5,484,700 /1000 |
Based on these statistics, it is clear that the indigenous population planted 13 times more than newly immigrated European colonizers, which explains why the majority of them preferred to work in the services and manufacturing industries. It should be emphasized that the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund provided lots of subsidies and incentives (such as free consultation, loans, and attractive long term lease programs) to encourage Jews to "redeem" the land. On the other hand, Palestinian agriculture was profitable and sustainable without any assistance from the local government.
It should be emphasized that Jews owned under 7% of Palestine of which only 44% was used for agricultural purposes by Jews (click here to see the exact scanned page from Survey of Palestine p. 376). In this regards, we ask the reader how could this myth be true if Jews cultivated under 3% of Palestine?
Soon after Nakba, the victorious Jews destroyed most of the usurped Palestinian farms and groves, especially olive and orange groves that required extensive labor to maintain and harvest. In this regards, it is worth quoting the Israeli Zionist writer Meron Benvenisti who described the Palestinian landscape soon after Nakba as follows:
"The destruction of hundreds of thousands of dunums of fruit-bearing trees does not fit Israel's self-image as a society that knows how to make the desert bloom. And the contention that the green Arab landscape had been destroyed because of necessity of adopting the crops to the agricultural practices of the Jews only underscores the conclusion it was not the war that had caused this devastation, but rather the disappearance of the specific human community that had shaped the landscape in accordance with its needs and preferences. The destruction of vast areas of orchards did not attract the same degree of interests as had the demolition of the Arab villages, despite the fact that it perhaps had more devastating effect on the landscape." (Sacred Landscape, p. 165) Click here to read more about this subject.
Let's analyze this concocted myth from another angle by comparing the current Israeli and Lebanese agricultural production. Based CIA's online Worldfact Book, we have collected the following data for year 2006:
| Israel | Lebanon | |
| Total land | 20,330 sq. km. | 10,230 sq. km. |
| Arable land | 3,140 sq km = 15.45% * 20,330 sq. km. | 1,672 sq. km. = 16.35% * 10,230 sq. km. |
| Irrigated land | 1,940 sq. km. (2003) | 1,040 sq. km. (2003) |
| Population | 6.4 million | 3.93 million |
| Total GDP | $140.3 billion (2006 est.) | $19.89 billion (2006 est.) |
| Agriculture production | $3.64 billion = 2.6% of GDP | $1.39 billion = 7% of GDP |
| Labor force working in agriculture | 2.6% of 2.42 million = 62,920 | N/A |
| Sources |
Profile
@ CIA Israel Project |
Profile
@ CIA PEPD |
After adjusting Lebanon's statistics to reflect the size difference (in arable
land size and demographics) compared to Israel's, Lebanon's agricultural production becomes $2.8
billion, which is little short of Israel's ($3.64 billion). While contemplating these
facts, it's also
worth noting the following facts about both countries:
|
Palestinian women harvest cotton in the village of Kafr Saba in 1937
It should be emphasized that even the most zealous of Zionists will find it hard to disprove that Jaffa's citrus plantations were first planted, marketed to Europe, packaged, and harvested by mainly Palestinian Arab companies, click here for the proof. As early as 1891, Ahad Ha'Am (a leading Eastern European Jewish essayist) tried to open many Jewish eyes to the fact that Palestine was not a desolate place, he reported upon visiting Palestine for three months in 1891:
"We abroad are used to believe the Eretz Yisrael is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed ..... But in truth that is not the case. Throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed. Only sand dunes and stony mountains .... are not cultivated." (Righteous Victims, p. 42)
For the moment, let's assume that the baseless myth is true, the questions that many Palestinians ask are:
-
Even if it was "true" that Jews made Palestine's desert bloom, does that legitimize the outright theft of the Palestinian people's homes, farms, businesses, banks, cars, buses, schools, ... etc.? Does that justify the expulsion of the indigenous population to make way for the newly arrived European Jewish refugees? It should be noted that Palestinians owned and operated over 93% of Palestine's lands as of 1945, click here for a map illustration. In November 1947, the architect of the "transfer solution", Yosef Weitz, stated that the collective DISPOSSESSION
of the Palestinian people was an inevitable outcome because of the high rate of land ownership among Palestinians. He stated:
"[most of the land] not Jewish-owned or even in the category of the state domain whose ownership could be automatically assumed by a successor government. Thus, of 13,500,000 dunums (6,000,000 of which were desert and 7,500,000 dunums of cultivatable land) in the Jewish state according to the Partition plan, only 1,500,000 dunums were Jewish owned." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 182)
- Could one legitimize the outright theft of the American New Yorkers' homes, cars, banks, schools, ... etc. since American Jews are the ones who converted New York City into the Worlds' financial and industrial metropolis? It's not only that Jewish Americans are the largest minority in New York City, they practically built it from ground up. In other words, if such an argument logically justifies dispossessing and ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people, why isn't it a good argument for collectively dispossessing and ethnically cleansing the American non-Jewish population in New York City?
This baseless myth, although an outright lie, attempts to paint a romantic vision for the "Promised Land" i.e. that it was destitute for 2,000 years until the "returning Jews" made its desert "bloom". It is sad to see how far this myth has been propagated in the Israeli school system and society in order to legitimize the continued collective dispossession of the Palestinian people.



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Now I'll be able to demonstrate "the desert" wasn't a desert at all.
As for your imperialist assertion "Rim" about Zionist "Israeli" colonialist settlers (mostly from Amerikkka, Europe, and Russia) these Zionists are like the imperialist Western world (including Amerikkka) which has become rich due to a recent history of committing genocide (against Native Americans in the white European "Amerikkkan" case), slavery (against Africans), colonialism, and modern imperialism. So yes Western imperialist nations are wealthier than "Third World" nations, and the Zionist "Israelis" are demonic spawn of their fellow Western/Amerikkkan imperialist supporters (and most of them are one and them having again invaded Palestine from Europe and Amerikkka itself)! See Balfour Declaration of the British Empire, AIPAC control of the US government, idiotic Christian Zionist fools in the US and all their support of "Israel", etc.
By no means we claimed that Zionist Jews were not efficient; on the contrary as you have pointed out they are efficient.
This article proves that the Zionists argument: "Jews made the Palestinian deserts bloom" is a myth, it is a lie and as you have pointed out currently Israelis mostly work in hi-tech; so that defeats your argument. They cannot work in hi-tech and work in labor intensive work!
With respect to your argument about Lebanon; your point is irrelevant and its red herring; the article's argument that it proves (with numbers) that Palestine's agriculture production was mostly Palestinian and its Jewish population preferred and still do prefer to work in the services industry (i.e. his-tech as you have pointed out).
The comparison with Lebanon is ridiculous. Israel's economy is high-tech based. Your account raises the obvious question, why not compare the two nations economies? It is the state of the economy in general that the Zionists refer to as the "blooming of the desert".
Your table shows that Israel has less than twice the population of Lebanon, with an economy 7 TIMES bigger. Just face it, where the economy is concerned, the Jews do something right which the Arabs seem not to be able to copy. Not surprising, then, that Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, along with Ultra orthodox Jews (both religious, traditional, resisting change and modernism) are the most heavily dependent population on Israeli governmental support funds.