Making the desert bloom
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.
[6] 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?
It was only after we made the desert bloom that they became interested in taking it from us.”[7] The land was described by many early Zionists and foreign visitors to the area as desolate.
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 ...
No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem.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.
[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.
[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.
[18][16] 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 come in the second and third aliyah to the land.
Early on, Mizrahi Jews were often placed at the peripheral of Zionist settlements, sometimes leading to conflict caused by coerced placement there.
[24] In the following decades after its creation, Mekorot would develop numerous project in water technology, including cloud seeding and the construction of pipelines and wastewater treatment plants.
[30] The phrase "making the desert bloom" and well as the implementation of various Israeli afforestation and agricultural/water technology projects have been critiqued by various organizations.
[33][34] The JNF has repeatably been criticized by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel[35] and the Palestine Museum of Natural History,[36] 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.
[37][38][39][32] The JNF has also been criticized by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions,[40] Code Pink,[41] BADIL,[42] Amnesty International,[43] 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.
[49][50] Israel's water policies have been criticized by various organizations, such as Amnesty International,[51] B’Tselem,[52] Human Rights Watch,[53] UNICEF,[54] and others.
