A Hot Dusty Crossroads
Publisher: Wilson Center
Author(s): Peter Schwartzstein
Date: 2021
Topics: Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, Land, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Iraq
Not so long ago Abu Mohammed al-Ghanem could barely venture from his front door without trampling a neighbor’s crops. To his immediate north, a cousin grew wheat. Just to the south, his friend Tarek cultivated everything from eggplant to pomegranates. Along the flanks of Ghanem’s own orchard, and between most houses, the village of Besmaya al-Qadeema boasted a dazzling bunch of neatly pruned date palms.
But that was then. Since 2016 these men – and their agricultural pickings – have gone.