Excellent and well-researched article on the real agricultural and developmental history of Palestine. Shocker: the heartland of the Fertile Crescent is not all desert AND desert does not mean undeveloped or uncivilized.

Some notable facts that were new to me were that total land cultivated prior to the Nakba was not matched by the settlers until 30 years later, and that the total amount of cultivated desert has decreased by 2/3 under colonial rule.