First Sentence

"FOR MOST PEOPLE in the Yishuv-the pre-state Jewish community in Eretz Israel (Palestine)-in the late Ottoman and the British Mandate periods, citriculture evoked a tapestry of images that would later evolve into sacred symbols of the Israeli experience: the tantalizing aroma of citrus blossoms blanketing the whole country, heralding the end of the cold winter and the advent of spring; the picker's pleasant fatigue at sunset after a grueling day in the orchards in agonizing struggle for the "conquest of labor" (the Zionist term for establishing the primacy of Jewish, as opposed to Arab, labor); and the ardent faith, the parched throat, and the clenched fists in vehement protest against Jewish citrus growers in the moshavot (privately owned agricultural colonies, sing. moshava) who used Arab labor."