I bought some wonderful oranges from Sidon, even this late in the season. They are smaller than the Egyptian navel oranges, which I am told were originally from Palestine. These oranges from southern Lebanon must be what the original oranges of Palestine must have been like before the european settlers cleared the coast of oranges to make way for cement parking lots and apartment houses in Tel Aviv.
The box said Shamouti, in English, and I looked up in Google to see if that were the name of a certain type of orange. Instead, Google found references to Ismael Shammout, the famous Palestinian artist who did the famous picture of the man, like Aenaes fleeing Troy, but carrying the whole burden of the refugees on his back. Click on this link to see a series of paintings Shammout (and his wife, Tamman Al-Akhal?) made on the history of Palestinians in exile. And on this link to see his biography, as it was posted on a McGill listserve of Palestinians in Exile. My friend, who Crystal Kessler used to call, Che Guevara because of his beret, at AUC was from McGill...nice old listserver here. What was his name, he must have become quite a famous Arabist now.
