This post is a labour of sweet love. I’ve been listening to an audio book about Seafaring and Trade in the Mediterranean and it mentioned the town of Jaffa (apparently also known as Yafa).
As a child I can remember seeing the label in the Supermarket, I always associated Oranges with the name Jaffa. Oranges seemed sweeter when I was a child.
I didn’t know the History of the Jaffa Orange and was unaware of the sadness attached to it. “The Land of Sad Oranges” is the title of a famous story by the late Palestinian Journalist and writer Ghassan Kanafani that tells the story of the life of a young child growing up in an orange grove in Palestine. The history of the Jaffa orange has strong symbolism with the Palestinian’s connection with the lands and the immense loss they have suffered.
Sad to say at the beginning everyone worked together to make the Jaffa Orange a success story. It was a sweet orange with a thick peel, ideal for the export market. Arab cultivation was regarded as labour intensive but in actual fact it was probably the best way to harvest the original crop and it brought wealth to the region.
Nowadays , the crop is not a pure Jaffa Orange , and it can come from a number of Countries depending on the season. In fact now it is an all year round orange which means Jaffa is a brand. It and other fruits are grown under the Jaffa brand and sold in Tesco.
It originated in Palestine, but globalisation and the situation in the Middle East has led to the name Jaffa becoming a brand.Who cares for the fruit or where it comes from as long as we put it on the supermarket shelves and it’s fit to eat and we make money out of it.
I think if I saw the label “Jaffa” on a supermarket shelf, I would walk by because to me it is a sad orange. However, if things change and there is Peace and Prosperity in Palestine and the Oranges are grown in a Cooperative way where everyone benefits from the crop, then I would look differently at the “fruit” and it would no longer be a sad orange but a happy orange.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
thenotsomightyom 