L’« orange de Jaffa » avant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Un fruit « palestinien » chargé de sens

Résumé 0

« Oranges of Jaffa » Before the Second World War. A « Palestinian » Fruit Ripe with MeaningThe Shamouti orange or « the orange of Jaffa » cultivated by the Arabs of Palestine at the end of the Ottoman Era became, in the interwar years, the pillar of the pioneer agricultural economy of the Jews of Palestine, the very symbol of the feats of the Zionist movement and an ideologically seductive argument vis-à-vis European public opinion, in particular among Jews. It is this phenomenon of a fruit that represented for its producers both an economic trump card and an element of visibility and of political propaganda that is discussed in this article. How, in the first place, did the orange become by far the most important commercial culture of the Jews of Palestine? Furthermore, how did Jewish Palestine manage to make these oranges both a major export product for the community, as well as an argument in favor of the Zionist cause amongst European Jews? This last question will focused primarily on the French case.