Fredrik Meiton - Electrical Palestine: Capital and Technology from Empire to Nation

Electrical Palestine

Electrical Palestine

CAPITAL AND TECHNOLOGY FROM EMPIRE TO NATION

Fredrik Meiton

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press

Oakland, California

2019 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Meiton, Fredrik, author.

Title: Electrical Palestine : capital and technology from empire to nation / Fredrik Meiton.

Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018021244 (print) | LCCN 2018025341 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520968486 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520295889 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520295896 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH : ElectrificationPalestineHistory20th century. | ElectrificationPolitical aspectsPalestine. | Jewish-Arab relations.

Classification: LCC HD9685.P192 (ebook) | LCC HD9685.P192 M45 2019 (print) | DDC 333.793/2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021244

Manufactured in the United States of America

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For my parents

The capitalistic economy of the present day is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things in which he must live.

MAX WEBER , The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Look out, honey, cause Im using technology

Aint got time to make no apologies

THE STOOGES , Raw Power

Contents

Tables and Illustrations

TABLES

FIGURES

MAPS

Abbreviations and Notes on Sources

Note: Unless otherwise specified, the organizations and departments cited are Palestine based. For most correspondence to or from various employees of the Palestine Electric Corporation, only the company is identified, and not the individual names. Individual names are specified only when they could be thought to have some significance. Quotations containing obvious but minor mistakes of spelling or grammar have been corrected.

Acknowledgments

Of all the ways of acquiring books, Walter Benjamin says, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy. I certainly hope so, given all the work that went into writing this one. Except, of course, I hardly wrote it alone. I am deeply grateful to the people and institutions that helped me bring this book to completion. I received financial support from the Graduate School of Arts and Science and the Taub Center at New York University, Harvard Universitys Joint Center for History and Economics, the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Cambridge Universitys Centre for History and Economics, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Posen Foundation, and the Palestinian-American Research Center. Thanks also to Niels Hooper, Bradley Depew, and the rest of the team at the University of California Press.

This book draws on sources from many large and small archives in Israel, Palestine, and Britain. Without the generous assistance of many devoted archivists, I would scarcely have been able to write it. I owe a large debt of gratitude to Helena Vilensky at the Israel State Archives and to Haya Ben Jacob, Moshe Feintuch, and Shmuel Shechtman at the Israel Electric Corporation Archives. At the archives of the Nablus Municipal Library I thank the director, Dirar Touqan, and especially the head archivist, Mayn Sulayman Abu Ghazal. In Nablus, Ala Abu Dheer, Tamer Khatib, and Naseer Arafat gave of their time and their vast knowledge of their hometowns past and present. Thanks also to Merav Segal at Weizmann House and Mati Beinenson at the Weizmann Institute Archives. Prager Adam at the municipal archives of Haifa was a terrific host, as was Rivka Preshel-Gershon at the Tel AvivJaffa municipal archives. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Ronen Shamir, who graciously shared his work with me while it was still in manuscript form.

I also want to express a heartfelt thank-you to all those who read all or parts of this study and provided helpful feedback: Ahmad Amara, Seth Anziska, Tareq Baconi, Nadim Bawalsa, David Biale, Pat Cooney, Muriam Davis, Steve Epstein, Michael Gordin, Stefanie Graeter, Shay Hazkani, Joseph Hodge, Matthew Kelly, Minna Mathiasson, Joel Mokyr, David Myers, Aaron Norton, Haley Peele, Paul Ramirez, Gil Rubin, Lotta Segerstrm, Naomi Seidman, Mikael Shainkman, Helga Tawil Souri, Daniel Stolz, Sandy Sufian, Salim Tamari, Alex Winder, and Sunny Yudkoff. I owe an especially large debt of gratitude to Samuel Dolbee, who has the dubious distinction of having read virtually every word I have written in the past decade. Adding saintliness to virtue, he has always insistedeven when it couldnt possibly be trueto have enjoyed the process.