Jaffa, The Orange's Clockwork: An Analysis

No one would ever think that an orange, a nutritional commodity, would create such a drastic impact on the colonization and exploitation of a settled group, but it is not uncommon for a food to become a symbol for something else, be it an idea, group, or place. In the film Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork the renowned Jaffa Orange throughout the 20th century symbolized the potentiality of a region that represented unity between both groups, but over time was poisoned by the pursuits of settler colonization leading to overall destruction. Although there was evidence of early cooperation between the Jew and Arab populations on Jaffa Oranges, most important were Zionist and European techniques that masked appropriation of what was once the chief agricultural product of Arab peoples, as well as the influence of competition on land and labor between both groups.

Even so, primary reports from individuals and historical documents …show more content…
Although in the beginning there was a sense of camaraderie amongst the Jews and Arabs in the orange industry beginning, European influence lead to the erasure of Palestinians and an assumption of “birthright” for the Jews as the original producers and cultivators of the land. Zionism, like all other European colonial-settler movements, uses cultural and historical theft as key weapons for appropriation in its war of elimination against the indigenous Palestinians. Even today, descendants of Palestinians still feel the effects of this previous rivalry, sparking war and angry feuds between themselves and Jews in the Middle East. Israel’s delusion that Palestinian culture belongs to it is no different from the fantasy that it somehow sits in Europe and not in the heart of the Arab