Jenin's Watermelons and National Betrayal

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I have closely followed consumer behavior in the land occupied in ‘67 over many long years, and I took part along with many others in campaigns to encourage local products and boycott Zionist products, particularly during the 1987 intifada. My opinion was, and still is, that peoples who do not rely on themselves will be sated only with humiliation and subjugation, and that a people who support their enemy’s economy are not seeking freedom and liberation. If attentiveness to national products is very important under conditions of independence and stability, it is doubly important when people fall under occupation, given what it entails of insistence on self-sufficiency as far as possible, and of escaping the penalties the occupation imposes on people because of their resistance to it or their non-compliance with its measures.

Jenin’s watermelons are one example of the disappointment that has befallen the Palestinian people, not necessarily because of conscious, declared popular positions, but because of political and economic leaderships that failed to entrench a national culture, and because of the financial, economic, and status-driven interests of these leaderships. It is well known that the Jenin plains form a very important food basket for Palestine, particularly in vegetables, and are a fundamental pillar of a policy of self-sufficiency, were such a policy to be adopted by the factions, the PLO, or an authority. These plains were once a primary source of watermelon production that filled the markets of the land occupied in ‘67 and the markets of Jordan.

I have followed the agricultural situation in these plains over the years, and I watched watermelon cultivation disappear little by little, until in 2010 I was unable to find a single dunam planted with watermelon. This year, 2011, someone directed me to a watermelon farm in the Marj Ibn Amer plain, and I went to visit it. I got to know the farmer Abdul-Nasser As’ad Sammar, a former detainee and former worker in Zionist facilities. Mr. Abdul-Nasser told me that the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture decided to encourage watermelon cultivation, and provided anyone wishing to farm it with new seedlings grafted onto pumpkin rootstock, at half the cost. This is, of course, a good and necessary thing that ought to continue. I saw the produce — good produce, which I bought some of, and which delighted everyone who tasted it. I weighed one of the fruits at twenty-one kilograms, and it surpassed Zionist watermelon in quality; it is enough that you can smell in its rind the fragrance of a struggling Palestinian farmer’s brow.

Abdul-Nasser complained about the high death rate among the seedlings, but expressed his relief that the seedlings could be improved in the future. But the major problem he faces is competition from Zionist watermelon. The Palestinian market is full of Zionist watermelon, and not of excellent quality either, since traders do not bring in top-grade melons. This is well known: over the years, Zionist watermelon has wiped out Palestinian watermelon, and thereby wiped out the farmer who preserves the land that is the homeland. The cause is not the Zionists, and not the odious occupation, but rather the Palestinian consumer who buys Zionist goods, casting national values aside in favor of consumer values.

…that this promise will not be carried out, because the decision-maker cannot take a decision of this kind because of the agreements with the Zionists. There may be patriots among those who made the promise, but national sentiment alone is not enough to make a decision; a free political will must also be present.

As for the traders, they grew angry when they heard the farmers’ demands to stop the invasion of Zionist watermelon, and said to the farmers, literally: “You want to wreck our livelihood.” Here lies the real tragedy: where is the wrecking of the livelihood? Is it in stopping imports from the Zionists, or in supporting the Palestinian farmer? Is it the trader’s interest, or the homeland’s interest, which requires reducing imports from the Zionists as much as possible? And could the trader not trade in Palestinian watermelon instead of trading in Zionist watermelon?

Most of these questions are more than thirty-five years old. For decades there have been attempts to stop the purchase of Zionist goods and to encourage national products, and only partial compliance occurred during the 1987 intifada, ending in failure. Many people have explained to the Palestinian public, by various means, the dangers of buying Zionist goods, and what that entails of supporting the enemy’s economy and destroying the idea of self-reliance. People have listened to many educational lectures, seminars, and appeals, received statements and pamphlets, and many throats have grown hoarse calling on citizens to give national values priority over consumer values. Sadly, hopes were dashed. Simply put, many people respond that Zionist goods are better than Palestinian products, and if it is food, they say it is “tastier.”

It seems that most people are not concerned with national values, and still believe that their salvation will come at the hands of others, and that all they need to do is enjoy themselves under occupation because relief is near, sealing their delusions by appealing to the Divine Self and saying, “God willing.” People do not appear convinced that what they are doing amounts to clear national betrayal. They are supporting the Zionist economy, and thereby the Zionist army that confiscates land, kills people, and violates sanctities. Betrayal is not only recognizing Israel or coordinating security matters with it; it is also a betrayal to ruin the Palestinian factory owner, the workshop owner, the farm owner, while reviving Zionist industry and supporting their agriculture.

Someone might object and say this is an exaggeration. No. This is not an exaggeration, because all these long years of occupation, repression, and destruction ought to have been enough to activate our defiance and raise the level of our resolve, so that we would all be in the trench of confrontation, each according to his place in society and in the wheel of contribution. Is it reasonable that we are still buying milk, juice, ice cream, chocolate, and detergents from the Zionists? If we were truly patriotic, we would not have destroyed the shoe factories in Hebron, nor the sewing workshops in Tulkarem, nor the plant-based industries in Nablus, and so on. My assessment is that we must face the naked truth as it is if we want to defeat the occupation and reclaim even a part of our established national rights.

Before 1948, the Zionist would refuse to buy goods from the Palestinian shop located near him, preferring to walk a long distance to buy a box of matches from a Jewish shop. This is how one who wants to establish a state behaves.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “بطيخ جنين والخيانة الوطنية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.