MY VILLAGE WAS NEVER A BIG VILLAGE, NOR WAS IT PARTICULARLY SUCCESS...

1. My village was never a big village, nor was it particularly successful or well-known. It was a place where simple

people worked on their land, tending citrus groves and running poultry farms. The most exotic plantation grew avocados, and

a palm tree nursery was something of an attraction.

The village was established by a group of Greek immigrants in 1937 in what was then known as British-controlled

Palestine. When we first moved here, one could still hear some Greek in the street, the local store sold original Greek

delicacies and from time to time we were invited to sit on a neighbor’s porch and share some ouzo at the end of a working

day.

In the last few years, my village has changed dramatically. Very few people work in agriculture now; they can no

longer support their families growing oranges and chickens. As a result, they must find their income outside the village and

rent out their land or sell their little family farms altogether. Some of the land is still used for agriculture, but no longer for

the family farms. Now it is the agriculture of luxuries.