ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Tobacco’s Enemy Number One: Palestinian Fellahin Dealing with Blue Mold under Military Government

• In Event: Disruptive Encounters: Historicizing More-Than-Human Lives in Palestine

English Abstract

At the end of 1962, the tobacco blue mold arrived in Israel/Palestine. Caused by the oomycete Peronospora hyoscyami f.sp. tabacina Adam, it originated in Kentucky in 1921 and spread through Europe and into the Middle East by the early 1960s. The blue mold devastated entire crops, and people growing tobacco in the region, mostly fellah (peasant) family households, had to make ends meet despite the total crop failure. To do so, in the case of Palestinian citizens of Israel, they had to appeal to the military government that controlled them, and to organize despite restrictions on movement, gathering, and assembly. This paper traces the spread of tobacco blue mold into the Middle East and examines local responses to it, including those of Palestinian fellahin, the military government, the Ministry of Agriculture, and plant pathologists. This episode reflects the extent to which fellahin voiced their expertise in tobacco cultivation and were willing to jeopardize themselves to advocate for the future of Palestinian agricultural life under Israeli rule. It charts the landscape of plant pathology experts and military government as they, too, were grappling with the new pest. It also exposes the vernacular of surveillance and control employed by the state, as well as its prejudice against fellahin, even when the latter are facing a new, more-than-human threat to their livelihood.

Author

• Basma Fahoum, Ben Gurion University