On Its 75th Birthday, Reasons for Hope in Israel | Opinion
NewsweekNov 29, 2022
The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday stated that European Commission Pres. Ursula von der Leyen's congratulatory message on Israel's 75th year of independence, which also provoked ire among Palestinian social media users, was "an anti-Palestinian racist trope."
This atypical diplomatic quarrel between the PA and the EU —which is a main donor to the Authority — comes after von der Leyen praised Israel, including for having "made the desert bloom," in a video that has had millions of views on Twitter.
Israeli settlers have long tried to legitimize their presence in Palestine by promoting the racist and patronizing national foundation myth that they "made the desert bloom." While there are indeed swathes of desert in Palestine, most of it is part of the Fertile Crescent where the earliest agriculture arose in human history — and the amount of cultivated land in the Naqab desert has decreased significantly since the foundation of Israel in 1948. This dismissal of true history is used as a tool by the Israeli regime to justify the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people.
The "promised land" was dry and unproductive when the Jewish people began returning to Israel in the 19th century, prompting them to find unique ways to make the desert bloom and prosper despite facing a harsh climate, little water, and poor soil. Nowadays, even though more than half of the country is still comprised of desert and drylands, Israeli agriculture has become a case of success as farmers can use the weather to their advantage. Israeli ingenuity did in fact make the "desert bloom," which has benefited the entire region.