A Journey to Jericho 

Hadas Lahav *

July 2008

Jericho’s citizens no longer believe that anything good can happen in their city. Jericho, the first city to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), with a population of about 45,000, looks almost deserted. The Casino has been replaced by the prison, and instead of the tourists who once flocked from around the world, PA policemen prowl the streets. According to non-official estimates, 75% of Jericho’s inhabitants are unemployed with no source of livelihood. In the past, Jericho used to be “ Palestine’s bread basket,” but the extended closure, the PA’s negligence, the price increase in agricultural input, and the lack of investment in infrastructure, all threaten Jericho’s agriculture.

The Jericho Products Project

Mariana Marsel with the labane balls at the food project.

The first visit by Sindyanna of Galilee was at the YWCA, which hosts the food project of the Jericho Products cooperative. The project is managed by Nazar Halta and Abir Ganem. We met the two of them for the first time at the Slow Food conference in Turin in 2004, and since then we have been prevented from meeting. They are forbidden to enter Israel for “security reasons,” and Israelis are not permitted to enter Jericho.

The food project at the YWCA was established in 2001, after the second intifada put an end to the dreams of independence and prosperity evoked by Oslo and “ Gaza and Jericho first.” “After the intifada, Jericho turned into a ghetto,” Nazar says. “Tourists stopped coming and workers couldn’t go to work in Israel. The economic situation was very bad and we had to find a way to help people earn a living. The only way was to start producing for the local market.”

The food project produces homemade food, most of which is sold in supermarkets, at events and directly to individuals. The project works according to fair trade principles and some of its customers are fair trade organizations in Europe.

The big fridges in the corridor contain trays of labane, kube, sfiha, maftol, frike and other local foods. Abir is the supervisor of the factory which provides work for 12 people, all of whom are the only breadwinners in their families. The workers earn 1500 to 2500 shekels ( NIS) a month – a huge sum in local terms; about twice as much as the wage of an agricultural worker, possibly more. According to Abir, the project covers about 60% of its expenses while the rest is covered by donations.

Khalid Abu Eid, Frida Rashmawi, and Majida Eid filling kube at the food project at the YWCA.

The day we arrived, the team worked on a big order for a wedding in Jerusalem. Mariana Marsel, a professional chef, was rolling labane balls which were then put in a jar of aromatic olive oil. Marsel used to work at the Intercontinental Hotel but had to quit when tourists stopped coming. She is one of the project founders, and the project gives her the opportunity to continue working as a chef and to support her sick mother.

Haled Abu Eid (Abu Alaa), from the village of Bida, used to work as a cook at the Ramada Hotel, the Holy Land Hotel, and Al-Quds Hotel in Jerusalem. Since the separation wall was erected he has been unable to enter Jerusalem, and supports his large family (nine children, some of whom are students) through his work in Jericho. He goes home to Bido at the weekend. The journey from Bido to Jericho takes about two hours in taxis and buses, and costs about 30 shekels each direction. When we arrived, he was busy making kube together with Farida Rashmawi and Majida Eid, both of whom have been working with the project for about four years. For them, and for the rest of the women who work there, the project is not only a dependable source of income, but also a source of pride which offers hope in their search for an alternative road.

Farmers of Medical Planets & Organic Products Cooperative

An eggplant field in Jericho, which belongs to a cooperative member. In the background: netting covering vegetables.

The Farmers of Medical Planets & Organic Products Cooperative (FMPOPC) is another cooperative project in Jericho. The cooperative was established in 1999 to help local farmers improve their financial and social situation. The managers were eagerly waiting for us at the cooperative’s office, located in a modest building among eggplant fields and palm trees – it has been a long time since they had a visit from “outside.”

Muafak Hashem Elkurayshi, the director and agricultural supervisor, is the living soul of this cooperative. His professional education was obtained at a French project that operated in Jericho two decades ago. Today he grows vegetables and palms, and represents the organization that includes 55 farming families. Muafak feels pain for the Palestinian agriculture crisis in general, and for Jericho’s farmers in particular. “About 40% of Palestinian arable land is not cultivated,” he says. “Today, about 75% of the farmers already live under the poverty line, while the average income for a family is 500-700 shekels a month.”

Jericho, unlike other Palestinian towns, does not have many options for work, and 55-60% of its working population works in agriculture. No more than 5% work in the municipality and the PA offices, while just a few hundred work at the Jordan bridge border crossing and the nearby industrial zone of Mishor Adomim. If agriculture collapses, this will be a death sentence for Jericho.

“The working conditions for most of farmers here are very hard,” says Muafak. “They have no insurance fund, no compensation, no bank credits, and very few marketing channels. In addition, there are few places for storing the products because of the lack of cold-rooms which require an investment that these farmers cannot afford. Therefore, farmers are obliged to sell their products quickly and at any price. In the past, farmers could get to the Israeli market, but now they are totally dependent on local traders who take advantage of their difficulties.

Muafak Hashem at the cooperative’s office.

“The farmers borrow money from a trader in order to buy seeds and equipment,” Muafak continues. “In return, they are obliged to sell his produce at the price determined by the trader. When an Israeli farmer sells pepper, for instance, for the price of two shekels, we sell it for one tenth of that price. Thus the farmer can never escape the grip of debt. We cannot market to the western world because we don’t have access to ports. For example, we grow the same dates as the Israeli farmers but we cannot export. All our attempts to export through Israeli companies have failed.”

The cooperative gives the farmers economic support and guidance, helps them make concentrated purchases of equipment and material, and assists in marketing. According to the cooperative contract, the cooperative is committed “to improving farmers’ economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions and to organizing them according to the principles of cooperation, self-help, independence, democracy, equality and unity.”

The cooperative members are proud of some of their important achievements in agriculture. For example, they used to believe that zaatar (hyssop) would grow only in the mountains. However, a few years ago the cooperative distributed 250,000 zaatar seedlings to its members, and today this is one of the main products in Jericho. In addition, the cooperative members are the only farmers who grow vegetables under netting, which increases the yield in the harsh local climate.

Moreover, the cooperative nurtures 15 organic farms which provide special medical plants and vegetables. Why organic? Muafak explains that the economic reason is related to the capitalist character of the market. “Ten years ago we participated in a course organized by Bir Zeit University, during which we studied the negative aspects of using pesticides,” he says. “It turned out that Palestinian farmers used 21 tons of pesticides a year, while our agriculture requires only one ton. We understood that we had become an easy target market for chemical companies looking to increase their profits. The other reason for going organic is ecological. However, most small farmers in the area do not use chemicals for the simple reason that they cannot afford to. We wanted to rescue this sector and take advantage of the fact that they are actually growing organic crops. The problem is that the PA doesn’t have an authorized body that can certify farmers as organic, which affects the profitability of this sector.”

The organization works in a democratic way and its management is chosen from among its members. Ibtesam Saradich, one of the three women in management, had nine years of formal study and is considered a food and produce expert. She grows vegetables and medical plants on a plot of about 5 dunams ( 1.2 acres). Her husband is employed at Jericho’s municipality and earns about 1,000 shekels a month. Without her work, their family of ten would struggle to survive.

Jericho has an abundance of organizations like the two mentioned above. They are only a couple of examples of the organizations working in the area. Each one, in its own field, tries to fill the gap left by political agreements that lack vision and good intentions. Muafak and his friends believe that self-organization is the only guarantee for the survival and development of agriculture in the area. International aid organizations, governmental organizations and employees come and go, and their promises usually evaporate in the extreme heat of the Jordan Valley. On the other hand, the solidarity of the cooperative members, the status that they grant to women working in agriculture, and their initiative, optimism and persistence fill us with hope.

Our visit ends when our taxi driver informs us that he has to go back to Jerusalem and that our time is up. Ibtesam hurries to supply us with small jars of her own handmade pickled peppers. We hope that the soldiers will not arrest us on suspicion of smuggling goods.

For the Arabic text look here