In 1969, 21 years after Western powers redrew the borders of the Levant and created the settler colony of Israel, former Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol declared in a speech: “What are the Palestinians? When I came here there were 250,000 non-Jews, mainly Arabs and Bedouins. It was desert. More than underdeveloped. Nothing. It was only after we made the desert bloom that they became interested in taking it from us.” This was the first recorded usage of “making the desert bloom,” a phrase that has since taken root and, like an invasive weed, proliferated throughout popular conceptions of Israel both domestically and abroad.
Fifty-six years later, in January 2025, renowned Palestinian journalist and hakawati (storyteller) Bisan Owda visited Rafah. Speaking to her millions of followers on social media, she told us, “I went to Rafah today, for the first time since May 2024. It was not there.” …..more
