Palestinian farmers in Gaza began the process of harvesting their crops in the besieged Gaza Strip. The Palestine Chronicle recently reported on the harvest of strawberries. Yesterday, Palestine Chronicle correspondent Mahmoud Ajjour joined farmers as they picked their oranges in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Farmers are hoping that future profits would allow them to compensate for some of their losses in previous seasons. Due to the hermetic Israeli siege, the purchasing power in the Strip is very low. Moreover, the blockade prevents farmers from exporting their products freely, thus massively undercutting their profit margins.
Palestinian intellectual Ghassan Kanafani, who was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in Beirut on July 8, 1972, at the age of 36 is remembered for his novel ‘The Land of Sad Oranges,’ among other seminal works. In his novel, he writes:
“You were huddled up there, as far from your childhood as you were from the land of oranges – the oranges that, according to a peasant who used to cultivate them until he left, would shrivel up if a change occurred, and they were watered by a strange hand.”
(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
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