arabs in israelThe Politics of Olive Oilby Hadas Lahav
The dearth of rain last year proved catastrophic for the olive industry,
the sole branch of Israel's agriculture that still remains largely in
Arab hands. This year bodes no better. The national Olives Council expects,
at the most, 1500 tons of oil, about a fifth of a good year's yield.
Thus nature has added its blows to those that the Arab farmer already
takes from the Israeli authorities. There are almost 200,000 dunams of olive groves in Israel (about 50,000 acres). Of these, 180,000 are cultivated for oil, the rest for eating. The Jewish sector controls 38,000 oil-producing dunams, irrigating a fourth of them. All the remaining oil groves (142,000) belong to Arabs and depend directly on rain. NOTE 1 The government has always neglected these. Their survival is testimony to the perseverance of the Arab growers, who have managed to keep up their groves even while commuting to work as laborers in the Jewish cities. The problem is not just economic. The safest reserves of the Arabs are their cultivated lands. When these go out of use, the government finds it easy to snatch them up, whether by confiscation or exchange. Since the Arabs suffer from a (government-induced) shortage in housing, Israel can today get between ten and fifteen dunams of agricultural land in exchange for one dunam in a residential area. Abed al-Majid Hussein, an agronomist from Deir Hanna, is among the founders of Sindyanna of Galilee (see below). His family owns several hundred dunams of groves. During recent years, he says, the cost of producing olive oil has outstripped earnings. His family continues to work the groves for reasons of sentiment, not because of economic calculations. Without modernization, says Hussein, the olive industry in this land is doomed to extinction. The decline of the industry is not, however, inevitable. On the contrary, worldwide and local markets are growing at a substantial rate. (See graphs.) This growth is a result of increasing health-consciousness. (Olive oil contains the good kind of cholesterol and none of the bad; a hundred grams hold 19 mg. of Vitamin E.) One measure of the booming market is the fact that the kibbutzim and other Jewish farming concerns have begun to produce the oil. If we take a closer look at the problems facing the olive industry, we shall see that they are solvable:
The problem of landSince Israel's establishment in 1948, it has confiscated more than 70% of Arab-owned land. (See Challenge # 57.) This still goes on. It can even happen (though not so readily) when the land is planted with trees. Here is one of several recent examples: Before 1948 the villagers of Ein Mahel near Nazareth owned 14,000 dunams. Today they have 4,500, of which 1600 are built up. (Challenge # 47.) Two years ago the landowners learned about a government order to confiscate 350 dunams, containing 6000 trees, for the sake of Upper Nazareth, a Jewish city. The owners petitioned the High Court to no avail. They were offered compensation at $160 per dunam. Most refused.If the olive industry is to thrive, Israel must stop confiscating Arab lands.
The problem of irrigationThe olive crop varies drastically from year to year. Occasionally there will be several good or bad years in a row, but for the most part, the good and bad years alternate. Even a year that is due to be "good" will turn poor, however, if it doesn't rain. And the edge can be taken off an expected "bad" year if the rain is good. Following a good year, every Arab family will store oil as a safeguard. Average consumption among Arabs is four liters annually (compared with 400 ml among Israeli Jews), but many families normally produce enough to store five times that much. The sale of surplus oil supplements their income. In the last two years of drought, however, the stock of stored oil has disappeared. Many families that normally produce oil have had to buy their own. This has led to an unexpected price increase. The 16-kilogram (18-liter) container that cost $75 in 1998 cost $120 in 1999. By way of contrast, in 10,000 dunams of groves, all belonging to Jews, there is intensive irrigation. The workers of Kibbutz Revivim, for example, have recently planted 3000 dunams of a strain called "Barnea", developed by Israel's agronomists. When irrigated, it yields an especially bumptious crop. The Ministry of Agriculture has experimented with the use of recycled sewage water in olive plantations. According to the head of the project, Dr. Fathi Abed al-Hadi, tests have shown that with the addition of relatively little water, one can increase the annual yield threefold. Unfortunately, neither the national nor the municipal authorities seem interested. They appear helpless when it comes to developing independent economic sources for Arabs. As for the Arab local councils, most send their sewage water to purification plants in nearby Jewish localities, where it is used to advance the flourishing, modern agriculture there. Says Dr. al-Hadi: "By erecting purification plants and irrigation systems in the Arab villages, the government could provide enough irrigation for all olive groves in the Arab sector." But that would require funding, as well as good will, on the part of Israel. Neither is much in evidence when it is a question of the Arab farmer.
Globalization strangles Arab marketingOlive oil produced in Israel sells at double the world price. In recent years European oil has been flooding the local market. (The farmers of the EEC enjoy a subsidy of about $1.80 per kilogram, writes Reuven Berger - see Note 1.) Till now Israel has provided partial protection by imposing an import duty of 22.2%, plus a charge of 5.7 shekels (almost $1.50) per kilogram. Note 3. Despite these partial protections, however, the European oils still sell more cheaply. Moreover, even this defense is likely to disappear if the World Trade Organization pushes Israel to lower tariffs. As a harbinger of things to come, Israel has signed an economic agreement providing for the annual import of 900 tons of Jordanian oil - customs-free.Other agricultural branches, such as milk, citrus, chickens and eggs, have organizations that streamline the marketing process. Not so when it comes to olive oil. In the Arab sector, marketing remains haphazard. Until ten years ago, a family's surplus would be sold to Palestinian merchants from the Territories, who would sell it, in turn, in the Persian Gulf. But then came the Gulf War, followed by Israel's policy of closure, and that outlet disappeared. Now we face an absurd situation: the demand for olive oil in Israel exceeds production, but there is no mechanism connecting the Arab oil presses to the local market. For Jewish growers, on the contrary, the links in the chain are intact: from the fields to the presses to the packing plants to the distributors to the shops. The Arab growers, lacking an organization, must accept the price that the Jewish companies offer. The alternative is to store their oil, but after two years it begins to go bad.
Production does not meet demandAs of today, Israel's olive industry is tiny compared to that in other Mediterranean countries. It doesn't even manage to meet local demand. According to Dr. al-Hadi, compared to the 7000 tons of olive oil that farmers in Israel produce in their best years, Syria makes 125,000 and Jordan 22,000. Meanwhile, annual consumption in Israel is 8000 tons and rising. (See graph.) This increase is part of a global trend. In the last eight years worldwide production has gone up 30% to 2.5 million tons, and consumption has kept pace. The increase derives mainly from the appearance of new consumers in countries that did not formerly use much olive oil, as well as a rise in use among producing nations. In Japan during the last 13 years, consumption has gone up by more than 1000%. In the US, during the same period, the import of olive oil has risen 300%. (Berger in Alon Hanotea, p. 440. See Note 1.)
Sindyanna of Galilee: the first attempt by Arabs to restore the olive industryA group of activists established Sindyanna of Galilee in 1997 as a non-profit company to cope with the problems of Arab olive growers in Israel. We believed that these problems could not be separated from political oppression, including land seizures and economic discrimination. Sindyanna acts as a trigger for ideas and action in production and marketing, as well as in holding the land. The basic idea is not to wait for the government to come with confiscation orders, but rather to initiate actions among the Arab communities themselves. Sindyanna attempts to raise community consciousness on the land issue, as well as organize "days of work", when volunteers plant untended fields in order to make it hard for the government to grab them. With this end in view, we also initiate the clearing of rocky lands for cultivation.Our main work, however, consists in production and marketing, where we supply the missing mechanism between the olive press and the shop. We do so, however, in strict adherence to the principles of fair trade. Unless they have a professional network like Sindyanna to defend them, Arab growers will lack motivation to maintain a high-quality product. A large part of this effort is voluntary. Activists here and abroad help with the marketing. In this manner we have reached fair-trade organizations in Germany and Japan. The struggle between Zionism and the Arab population in Israel is a struggle for control of land. The olive tree has always been a symbol of the Palestinian people's rootedness here. The tree's strength and resilience have enabled it to flourish under harsh conditions, making it, even today, the living proof of the Arab right to the land.
What can you do to help Sindyanna?In Germany and Japan you can help our importers to market our olive oil among friends and at various events. Last year Sindyanna also began developing soap and cosmetics based on olive oil. Solidarity groups may order quantities of soap (minimum: 300 bars) and market them at fairs and the like. All profits go toward the rescue of the industry. We shall be happy to send you brochures.Hadas Lahav is the director of Sindyanna.
Endnotes
2. See Oren Yiftachel, "The Internal Frontier: Territorial Control and Ethnic Relations in Israel," Regional Studies, vol. 30, No. 5 (August 1996), p. 493 ff. The Israel Lands Administration has such residential land to exchange, writes Yiftachel, because the government confiscated it from refugees in 1948. 3. Personal communication from the spokesperson of Israel's Ministry of Industry and Commerce. |
