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Sunday, April 09, 2006

How to deal with adversity

A lesson for Palestinian Arabs:
Gush Katif Lettuce being exported en masse to North American communities for Passover

For the coming Passover the “HaSalad” Company is flying out over 250,000 heads of lettuce to some thirty destinations all over the world.

The “HaSalad” Company is one of the leading producers and marketers of chilled fresh leafy worm-free vegetables in Israel. It is currently engaged in exporting by air 250,000 worm-free kosher for Passover lettuce heads to about thirty Jewish communities abroad. The lettuce heads are being taken to five centers in the United States (Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Miami and Las Vegas) and to other countries including England, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Russia.

Mr. Roni Ephraim, export manager at the “HaSalad” Company, reports that his firm will export 100 tons of lettuce, with a value of 1.5 million dollars.

The “HaSalad – Alei Katif” company was founded in Kfar Darom, Gush Katif sixteen years ago. It was the first business in Israel which specialized in growing insect-free leafy vegetables.

During the expulsion the plant, the largest in Gush Katif, was transferred temporarily to the industrial zone of Sha’ar HaNegev. In a short time it succeeded in growing lettuce and other vegetables on an area of hundreds of dunams in the western Negev area.

Formerly about 450 dunams in Gush Katif were covered with greenhouses that grew vegetables for HaSalad. In a mere six months the firm has again reached 100% of its former production. Dozens of new workers from Sderot and Netivot have replaced many of the workers formerly employed in Gush Katif.
Yes, Jews were forcibly kicked out of their homes, 16 years of their work and livelihoods destroyed, and six months later they are completely back up to speed - without the EU or the UN giving them a dime, without whining constantly to the world about how bad their lot is, without insisting on handouts and resolutions.

How many decades will it take Arabs to learn the same lesson?