Combines roll through the fields as Israel harvests its first crops from the Negev in 1956 (Screenshot of newsreel footage from YouTube)
“To reap a harvest from a desert must be one of the most satisfactory of all operations,” declares the narrator in this 1956 newsreel.
On screen, Kaddish Luz, Israel’s minister of agriculture at the time, drives a combine through the fields of the Negev.
“The ground had never before been cultivated,” the announcer concludes.
“But the reclamation of desert for agriculture purposes is naturally of prime importance to the country, which aims at eventually becoming self-supporting.”
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(The Associated Press and Movietone News recently released their vast video archives on YouTube, allowing the public to freely access a million minutes worth of historical news clips dating back to 1895 — including many iconic scenes from Israel’s history featured in this Times of Israel series.)
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