Philadelphus (pronounced fil-ah-del-fiss)
(1) Any
shrub of the temperate genus Philadelphus, cultivated for their strongly
scented showy flowers (family Hydrangeaceae).
(2) As Philadelphus
coronaries (mock orange), a deciduous, early summer-flowering shrub with
arching branches that bear racemes of richly scented, cup-shaped, pure white
flowers in profusion with finely toothed, bright green foliage. The plant is grown for its ornamental value.
(3) A
male given name with origins in the Ancient Greek.
1600s (in
botanical use): From the Ancient Greek Φιλάδελφος (Philádelphos) (brotherly love) & philadelphon (loving one’s brother). Philadelphus is a proper noun.
The mock orange plant has long been valued
for its decorative and functional properties.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; US president 1801-1809) was a keen gardener
and horticulturalist of some note and on 19 April 1807 noted in his “garden
book”: “Planted
9 Philadelphus coronarium, Mock orange in the 4 circular beds of shrubs at the
4 corners of the house.” Although
the origin is uncertain, biologists suspect the strong growing, medium-sized
shrub is native either to northern Italy, Austria & Central Romania or Central
& North America and Asia; in Europe & North America it has been cultivated
at least the sixteenth century. Before
modern standards of taxonomy were codified in the eighteenth century, the plant
was classified under the genus Syringa (covering the species of flowering woody
plants in the olive family or Oleaceae (commonly called lilacs) and a typically
comprehensive description was recorded by Lady (Jean) Skipwith (circa 1748–1826),
a Virginia plantation owner and manager still celebrated among botanists for
her extensive garden, botanical manuscript notes, and library, the latter
reputedly the largest at the time assembled by a woman. Lady Skipwith called the plant a “Syringa or mock
orange” while the US naturalist, explorer & explorer William
Bartram (1739–1823) preferred the former, reflecting a scientist’s reverence
for anything Greek or Latin. Syringa was
from the stem of the Latin syrinx,
from the Ancient Greek σῦριγξ (sûrinx) (shepherd's pipe, quill), the
name reflecting the use of the plant's hollow stem to make pipes, flutes &
tube. In modern use, “Mock Orange” tends
to be preferred by most, the name derived from the fragrance of the flowers
being so reminiscent of orange blossoms. The origin of the scientific name “Philadelphus”
(first applied in the early seventeenth century) is attributed usually to being
a tribute to Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Ptolemaîos Philádelphos (Πτολεμαῖος Φιλάδελφος in the Ancient Greek) 309-246 BC, pharaoh
(king) of Ptolemaic Egypt (284-246 BC), said to be a keen gardener (which can
be translated as “he kept many slaves to
tend his gardens”).
The
literal translation of the Greek philadelphon
was “loving one’s brother”, something used in the sense of “brotherhood of man”
as well as when referring to family relationships. For the pharaoh, the use was a little more
nuanced because, after some earlier marital problems, he married his older
sister Arsinoe II (316-circa 269 BC). This
appalled the Greeks who condemned the arrangement as incestuous and the couple thus
picked up the appellation Philadelphoi
(Φιλάδελφοι in the Koinē Greek (sibling-lovers)). Historians however are inclined to be
forgiving and suggest the union was purely for administrative convenience,
Egyptian political & dynastic struggles as gut-wrenching as anywhere and
there’s no evidence the marriage was ever consummated. Just to make sure there was the appropriately
regal gloss, the spin doctors of the royal court circulated documents citing
earlier such marriages between the gods (such as Zeus & Hera). It certainly set a precedent and the
intra-family model was followed by a number of later Ptolemaic monarchs and the
practice didn’t end. The scandalous
marriage of Heraclius (circa 575–641; Byzantine emperor 610-641) to his youthful
niece Martina resulted in her becoming “the most
hated woman in Constantinople” and it was a union certainly
consummated for “of
the nine children she bore her husband, only three were healthy, the rest
either deformed or died in infancy.”
The Philadelphi
corridor
The
Latin proper noun Philadelphi was the
genitive/locative singular of Philadelphus. In 2024 use spiked because the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) use “Philadelphi Corridor” as military code for the narrow (14 km
(9 miles) long & 100 m (110 yards) wide) stretch of land used to separate
the Gaza Strip from Egypt; it runs from the Mediterranean coast to the Kerem
Shalom crossing with Israel and includes the Rafah crossing into Egypt. The IDF created the corridor (from Gaza
territory) as a “buffer zone” (or “cordon
sanitaire”), ostensibly to prevent the Hamas, the PIJ (Palestine Islamic
Jihad) and others smuggling weapons and other contraband into Gaza through a
remarkable network of underground tunnels.
The corridor assumed great significance after Israel's withdrawal from
the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 and later after its disengagement from Gaza in 2005;
it has long been among the more contested spaces in the Middle East. According to the IDF, the term “Philadelphi
Corridor” was allocated during a routine military planning conference and the
choice was wholly arbitrarily with no historical or geographical significance related
to the region or any individual.
Just because a military say a code-name has no particular meaning doesn’t mean that’s true; the IDF is no different to any military. The most obvious possible inspiration for the “Philadelphi corridor” was the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus but one influence may have been cartographic, the geographic shapes of the Gaza Strip (left) and the US city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (right) quite similar and were the monstrosities Northwest, West & Southwest Philadelphia to be annexed by adjacent counties, the shapes of the two would be closer still.
The Philadelphi corridor has assumed a new
importance because Benjamin Netanyahu (b 1949; Israeli prime minister
1996-1999, 2009-2021 and since 2022) has added Israeli control of it to his
list of pre-conditions for any ceasefire in negotiations between his government
and the Hamas. It was designated as a
demilitarised border zone after the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and
troops from Gaza in 2005, prior to which, under the terms of Israel’s Camp
David peace treaty with Egypt (1979), the IDF had been allowed to maintain
limited troop formations in corridor but without heavy weapons or heavy armour. Old Ariel Sharon (1928–2014; prime minister
of Israel 2001-2006) arranged the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza subsequently
forming the Kadima (Forward)
political party because he could persuade the Likud (The Consolidation) party to follow his vision. Very much a personal vehicle for Mr Sharon,
Kadima did not survive his incapacitation from a stroke while the Likud fell
into the hands of Mr Netanyahu.
Following the Israeli withdrawal, responsibility for the corridor’s
security fell to Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, this maintained until the
Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007; it was seized by Israel in May 2024 as the
IDF’s Gaza ground offensive extended into Rafah.
Over
the years, the tunnel complex has proved a remarkably effective means by which
to facilitate cross-border smuggling of weapons, other materiel, fuel and a
variety of stuff including food, medicine and consumer goods, despite many
attempts by the IDF and Egyptian authorities to end the traffic, the latter
perhaps a little less fastidious in their endeavours. The tunnels are impressive pieces of civil
engineering, including electricity, ventilation systems, air-conditioning and
communications facilities; some are sufficient large to allow heavy trucks to
pass and there has long been speculation about the extent to which financial
and logistical support for tunnel construction, maintenance & repair is channelled
from the Gulf Arab states. In Cairo, the
government viewed the IDF’s seizure of the corridor with some alarm and remain
a “status quo” power, insistent that an ongoing Israeli presence will “endanger”
the Camp David peace treaty, no small matter because the “ripple effect” of the
1979 agreement had profound consequences in the region.
Pointing the way: Mr Netanyahu (left) explains the Philadelphi corridor (right).
Still,
Mr Netanyahu has made clear he intends to maintain a military presence in the corridor
(including the Rafah crossing) and that remains an unnegotiable condition for a
ceasefire with the Hamas; opposition to this stance has come from Cario, the
Hamas and some of the third parties involved in the negotiation. In Tel Aviv, that would not have been
unexpected but there is now an increasingly persistent protest movement among
Israeli citizens, the allegation being the prime-minister is cynically adding
conditions he knows the Hamas will be compelled to reject because as long as
the war continues, he can remain in office and avoid having to face the courts
to answer some troubling accusations pre-dating the conflict. Mr Netanyahu responded to this criticism by
saying as long as the Hamas remained a threat (later refined to “as long as Hamas
remained in control of Gaza”), the offensive needed to
continue. One of the great survivors of Middle
East politics, Mr Netanyahu recently assured the more extreme of his coalition partners
(described as “right-wing” which, historically, is misleading but descriptive
in the internal logic of Israeli politics) by engineering a vote in cabinet binding
Israel to retaining control of the corridor.
Despite this, opposition within the cabinet to the ongoing “moving of the
goalposts” to prevent any possibility of a ceasefire is said to be
growing. The opposition accused the
prime-minister of being more concerned with placating the extremists in his
government than securing the release of the remaining hostages seized by the
Hamas in the 7 October 2023 attack and left unstated but understood by
implication was the message Mr Netanyahu regards them as the “collateral damage”
in his manoeuvres to avoid the courts.
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