Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel

Chapter One: The Environment in Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period, 1798–1918

1 This chapter considers stages in the process of environmental and spatial change in the landscape of Palestine in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and the determinants and catalysts. During this period, which began with napoleon’s invasion of egypt, Palestine, and the Levant, Palestine was transformed from a neglected backwater of the ottoman empire to a focal point of world attention. Consideration is given to changes in the natural landscape of forests, wetlands, and other habitats, resulting from spatial change, including changes in land use, that were a consequence of political and legal reforms as well as immigration to Palestine. These processes influenced the nomadic and the settled populations, land ownership patterns, and agricultural practices. it is surprising that Palestine’s unique environmental history during this period has received only modest attention. most studies have focused on its political-administrative and social history, ignoring the environmental aspects and processes of landscape change during the nineteenth century. tal’s (2006) book on the environmental history of israel focused on the way it was shaped by the Zionist movement, especially since World War i. reifenberg (1950) and margalit (1955) reviewed Palestine’s environmental history during the nineteenth century. This history was summarized also in maps in the Atlas of Israel (first edition [1955–1961] in Hebrew; 1970 edition in english). Here we consider these earlier contributions in light of the knowledge that has since CHAPTER ONE THE ENVIRONMENT IN PALESTINE IN THE LATE OTTOMAN PERIOD, 1798–1918 Ruth kark and Noam Levin 2 RUTH KARK AND NOAM LEVIN accumulated. We make use of historical maps to further reconstruct aspects of the landscape as it was in the nineteenth century applying Gis (geographic information system). gEOgRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACkgROUND one must keep in mind the basic physical structure of the country, which is divided into four longitudinal subregions paralleling the mediterranean sea (fig. 1.1), including: • the coastal plains and the inner valleys (e.g., Jezreel Valley); • the hilly region in the Negev to the south, Judea and Samaria in the center, and the Galilee in the north, the latter rising to an average height of 700 meters, and the highest peaks reaching 1,000–1,200 meters; • the Jordan Valley (including the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee) that is part of the Great rift valley; • and the hills of Transjordan (Karmon 1971). The years 1798–1799 will be our starting point. it was then that napoleon’s army invaded egypt and Palestine, beginning a new era in the history of the Holy Land. from a forsaken province, it now became a focal point of contest between the european powers, Christian churches, and later Zionist efforts to establish a homeland for the Jews (Kark and Glass 1999). from a political and administrative perspective, the history of Palestine in the last century of ottoman rule (1798–1918) can be divided into four subperiods: 1. The period of the pashas (local strongmen, 1799–1831), in effect a continuation of the eighteenth century and the forms of government then prevailing. 2. The conquest of syria and Palestine by the egyptian ruler muhammed ‘ali by means of his son, ibrahim Pasha (1831–1840). in many respects this was a turning point, for despite the brevity of this period, the changes in government and other spheres were many. a catastrophic event during this subperiod was the lethal earthquake of 1837 that caused thousands of fatalities in safed and tiberias, the main centers of the Jewish population, and strongly influenced change of the Jewish center of gravity, from the Galilee to Jerusalem. 3. The period of reforms (1841–1876), when the ottomans regained control of the region and, influenced by the Western nations, attempted to institute new patterns of government in the spheres of modernization of administration, improved municipal frameworks, legislation including 3 Figure 1.1. topography of Palestine, overlaid by the nineteenth-century extent of coastal dunes and wetlands. based on Palestine exploration fund (Pef) and british mandate maps. 4 RUTH KARK AND NOAM LEVIN the ottoman Land Laws of 1858 and 1867, educational reforms, and upgrading of the military. 4. The end of the ottoman period (1877–1917). During the first part of this period (up to 1908), the region was under the centralized rule of sultan abdul Hamid ii; the latter part was marked by the influence of the “young turks,” from their revolution of 1908 until...