Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 196)
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- Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 196)
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to the general interests of the colonial state, meant that the British
were quick to respond to their complaints. In 1923, the government
appointed A. Mabulsi as the head of the “Palestine Commerctal
Delegation" to Egypt and offered him means to improve his competitive
status. (24)
The situation, however, was quite different fcr the poorer
classes within the fallaheen who manufactured soap at home and needed
to exchange thelr surplus oil to supplement their meager living. The
loss for these fallaheen meant virtually total ruin and, ultimately,
proletarianization.
A case in point are the fallaheen in the village of Rameh in the
Galilee area. Hundreds of fallaheen were forced to quit oil production
and look for employment outside their village. The irony in this case
was the way the state handled their complaints. After a long protest
by the fallaheen, a petition was sent to the government demanding
that it listen to their grievences. The petition read as follows:
Shemen is importing duty free seeds..It mixes these
seeds with olive oil and sells the produce for very
cheap prices...Shemen is making it impossible for us
to sell our ‘pure’ oil..
In response, the government agreed to a meeting between the village
representatives and government officials. However, when the
villagers' representatives azrived at the meeting they found, to their
surprise, that the chairman at the discussion table was himself the
head of the “Shemen" Company. The village representatives left the
room without uttering a word. (25)
The Citrus Industry
The contradictory character of the process of capitalist
development of agriculture,that is, the development and expansion of
182
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. - تاريخ
- ١٩٨٩
- المنشئ
- Nahla Abdo-Zubi
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