Food Sovereignty & Resistance: Lessons from Palestine & Beyond
The act of securing daily sustenance has become increasingly detached from direct agricultural involvement, leading to a loss of food sovereignty. This separation, coupled with a focus on individual pursuits, has distanced communities from the natural ecosystems – land, air, people, and animals – upon which they depend. However, in other parts of the world, communities are actively resisting this trend, framing agriculture not merely as a matter of survival, but as a political act of sovereignty.
The Erosion of Traditional Food Systems
Anthropologist Mauro Van Aken, a researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca, has studied the relationship between cultures and environments in locations including the north of Pakistan, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, and Italy. His work explores the ways communities maintain resilience in the face of external pressures. Van Aken suggests that abandoning local agricultural practices has diminished both identity and strength.
Working the land, he explains, historically required the participation of families or entire communities to achieve a sufficient harvest – for example, potato crops demanded collective effort. Traditional environmental management, encompassing water, seeds, and land, was consistently based on communal systems, flexible social and legal structures adapting to change.
The Musha System and Communal Land Management
In Palestine, the musha system exemplified communal land management, redistributing land to ensure everyone benefited from diverse land qualities and access to water. This system aimed to mitigate inequality and prevent individual ownership, particularly crucial in arid environments where agricultural production relied on a shared moral economy – the understanding that collective resource management reduced risks.
Traces of the musha system persist today in Cisgiordania and Jordan, primarily in water management. In Battir, near Bethlehem, the irrigation schedule is determined by the eight tribes that share access to water, with each tribe receiving a day for irrigation. A “mediator of water” – essentially a local water administrator – oversees this distribution, ensuring equitable access and conflict resolution.
Resistance to Privatization and the Value of Local Knowledge
The musha system of land management was actively opposed by both the British mandate and subsequent modernization efforts in the Middle East. This opposition stemmed from a desire to introduce private property rights, modelled after industrial productivity, which viewed nature as a resource to be exploited. This shift occurred particularly within colonial contexts, driven by accumulation and extraction, and often at the expense of existing knowledge systems and environmental relationships.
Small family plots, known as habbala, have become central to the survival of those remaining in areas experiencing continuous land expropriation. In Battir, despite a third of the land being under threat of expropriation, an elderly farmer expressed a sense of freedom, finding solace in the autonomy of choosing what to grow and the preservation of local knowledge.
The Politics of Agriculture and Colonialism
Occupied territories are often reliant on imported food, including seeds and technologies, from the occupying power. However, this dependence doesn’t negate the importance of maintaining local agricultural practices as a form of resistance. This resistance, particularly in the context of the Palestinian territories, is about preserving autonomy over food choices and the knowledge embedded in the land. This resistance is increasingly framed as a challenge to a form of colonialism that justifies violence in the name of environmental protection.
The construction of Israel, particularly after the 1967 occupation, involved the symbolic use of trees. Forestation served to establish political identity and root a population in a new context, replicating a familiar European landscape in a semi-arid environment. This was achieved through the creation of myths, including the idea of “a land without people for a people without land” and “making the desert bloom.”
Pine forests, while appearing to “green” the landscape, served to conceal Palestinian villages and architectural heritage, and also hindered traditional pastoral practices. In contrast, the olive tree holds symbolic importance for Palestinians, and a law dating back to the Ottoman Empire protects olive trees at least eight years old, providing a legal avenue for landowners facing expropriation.
Preserving Ancient Seeds and Knowledge
The focus on ancient seeds, known as baali (rain-fed) and baladii (local), represents a resurgence of local agricultural practices. These seeds, adapted to the region’s climate, are seen as a form of resistance, embodying traditional knowledge and techniques. The al-murba’nia calendar, a traditional system for tracking weather patterns, is crucial for successful planting and harvesting, emphasizing the interconnectedness between farmers and the environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the musha system?
The musha system is a traditional method of land management in Palestine where land is periodically redistributed among community members to ensure equitable access to different land qualities and water sources.
What role do olive trees play in Palestinian resistance?
Olive trees are a significant symbol for Palestinians and are legally protected, offering a potential avenue for landowners to challenge land expropriation.
What are baali and baladii seeds?
Baali seeds are ancient, rain-fed seeds, while baladii seeds are local seeds, both representing a resurgence of traditional agricultural practices and knowledge.
How might communities balance the need for food security with the preservation of traditional agricultural practices in the face of external pressures?