P F Tinmore
Diamond Member
- Dec 6, 2009
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Whatever became of the settlement lands? Such lost opportunities! The land has returned and what waste, we hear time and again from Zionist apologists and their kind. If only Gazans would make a life for themselves rather than blaming their problems on others!
Leaving aside the obvious question of how a territory and its people whose every marker of sovereignty is effectively controlled by an occupying power that nevertheless refuses to recognize its responsibility as an occupier can build a state and make a life, the Gaza government has actually been doing some pretty impressive things.
On Thursday, I had the opportunity to tour mu7ararat Gaza-the liberated lands of Gaza, i.e. the former settlements.
It was a follow-up to an interview colleague Maggie Schmitt and I did with the Minister of Agriculture, Mohammad Al-Agha. In consultation with dozens of international and local NGOs, the Gaza Ministry has drawn up an impressive ten-year plan aimed at reducing Gazas dependence on imported Israeli produce, incorporating organic farming on a wider scale, and generally helping Gaza help itself through a return to more sustainable agricultural practices (such as relying more on rain-fed crops rather than cash cropping for export which involves wasteful amounts of water and an abundance of pesticides, and is subject to the whim of Israeli authorities and their punitive border closure).
A greenhouse in the former settlement of Neve Dekalim,
now being used to grow fruits
In the former settlement of Kfar Darom, where sniper towers once lined the landscape, there is a massive organic composting facility for seasonal plants (as well as a sewage water composting for trees) and pilot organic farm where workshops are conducted to teach local farmers organic practices. Those who choose to implement organic farming are rewarded with free compost and saplings.
A worker gathers dried vegetable plants
to prepare for composting
In another section of this vast empty expanse is the fruit garden: carefully landscaped donums of a variety of fruit trees, marked with signs by each row, such as mangoes, citrus, apples, and stone fruits. Gaza now relies heavily on imported fruits from Israel, as tens of thousands of its own trees were razed to the ground during the second Intifada, and most recently during Cast Lead.
Perhaps most interesting of all was a farm which grows Oyster mushrooms in closely monitored environs, under the enthusiastic watch of agricultural engineer Amjad al-agha .
The resulting products are either dried or ground and sold to local restaurants, which use them for soup, salads, and sandwiches, and curries, or distributed in plastic baskets to a womans empowerment group to finish cultivating and ultimately to sell as a form of income generation.
Gaza Mom » Gaza; settlements; Israel; Hamas; agriculture
Leaving aside the obvious question of how a territory and its people whose every marker of sovereignty is effectively controlled by an occupying power that nevertheless refuses to recognize its responsibility as an occupier can build a state and make a life, the Gaza government has actually been doing some pretty impressive things.
On Thursday, I had the opportunity to tour mu7ararat Gaza-the liberated lands of Gaza, i.e. the former settlements.
It was a follow-up to an interview colleague Maggie Schmitt and I did with the Minister of Agriculture, Mohammad Al-Agha. In consultation with dozens of international and local NGOs, the Gaza Ministry has drawn up an impressive ten-year plan aimed at reducing Gazas dependence on imported Israeli produce, incorporating organic farming on a wider scale, and generally helping Gaza help itself through a return to more sustainable agricultural practices (such as relying more on rain-fed crops rather than cash cropping for export which involves wasteful amounts of water and an abundance of pesticides, and is subject to the whim of Israeli authorities and their punitive border closure).
A greenhouse in the former settlement of Neve Dekalim,
now being used to grow fruits
In the former settlement of Kfar Darom, where sniper towers once lined the landscape, there is a massive organic composting facility for seasonal plants (as well as a sewage water composting for trees) and pilot organic farm where workshops are conducted to teach local farmers organic practices. Those who choose to implement organic farming are rewarded with free compost and saplings.
A worker gathers dried vegetable plants
to prepare for composting
In another section of this vast empty expanse is the fruit garden: carefully landscaped donums of a variety of fruit trees, marked with signs by each row, such as mangoes, citrus, apples, and stone fruits. Gaza now relies heavily on imported fruits from Israel, as tens of thousands of its own trees were razed to the ground during the second Intifada, and most recently during Cast Lead.
Perhaps most interesting of all was a farm which grows Oyster mushrooms in closely monitored environs, under the enthusiastic watch of agricultural engineer Amjad al-agha .
The resulting products are either dried or ground and sold to local restaurants, which use them for soup, salads, and sandwiches, and curries, or distributed in plastic baskets to a womans empowerment group to finish cultivating and ultimately to sell as a form of income generation.
Gaza Mom » Gaza; settlements; Israel; Hamas; agriculture