Heaven is Ablaze with Hell: Olive Harvest Part 1

“And I’m an olive tree,
growing green in God’s house.
I trusted in the generous mercy
of God then and now.”
- Psalm 52:8

Tree as Life

An Olive tree has the most mysterious and wise look to it. With curling, thick roots that present themselves as old as they are, they instill a deep respect for those willing to look on their trunk with the wonder they demand. They are like a Grandmother's arms that you want to be bundled up into, and a Grandfather's smiling, wrinkled eyes and weathered, strong hands. Their steadfast gray roots stand so firmly in poor soil and tolerate seasons of drought. An Olive tree's trunk reaches purposefully with arms that produce thousands of little plump fruit, on thin stems with soft green leaves. When cut or burned down, the tree will remain alive, though will need four or five years to produce again. The life span of the Olive tree is centuries, and it is not unheard of for them to surpass 1000 years in age. The tree stands and is circled around during the cycles and seasons every year by those who tend to it and prune its branches, which is required for the bearing of fruit and the continuation of its life. The olives themselves have been compared by many cultures to joy, life, and healing, because of the properties and uses of the brilliant oil that is squeezed and beaten from the firm, smooth, oval fruit. The trees line the rolling hills of the Holy Land on terraces of rocks and weeds and red sand, carved around the natural landscape, creating pathways and shelves for people to take their place in the natural world, as they care fore, give, and receive from our earth.

“Israeli settlers burn 200 W. Bank olive trees”[1]

Video Link: Short, Clear Explanation of Settler Violence Against Farmers

Video Link: Another Short Example/Clip

Word “olive” is zayith, or “zaitun” meaning “an olive,” as “yielding illuminating oil.” It's related to the word ziv, meaning “to be prominent,” “brightness.” Ziv is the month of flowers, corresponding to Iyar, or our April-May.

“Olive trees burned as anti-Palestinian incitement grips Galilee” [2]

“You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil” (Micah 6:15).

Reaping and Raping what we Sow: Ready, Aim, Fire

“'A group of settlers from the Yitzhar settlement located near Huwara town in Nablus set fire to the town's olive fields, causing the destruction of 100 trees,' Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority official in charge of the settlements file in the northern  West Bank, told Anadolu Agency.

Attacks on the fall harvest are a key way that Palestinians are forced out of their homes and their lands confiscated for settlement construction, as the loss of a year's crop can signal destitution for farmers with no other way to support themselves.” [3]

The farming land near the village that I work in, Deir Istiya, is an extensive valley called the Wadi Qana [4]. Despite the overwhelming efforts of locals, NGOs, and internationals, the village lost the Wadi Qana to the settlements that built themselves quickly along the hilltops, making the valley too dangerous to harvest in. This harvest season, only 1 out of 40 families with land inside the beautiful, fertile Wadi Qana is harvesting (each family/farmer will often have hundreds of trees in their family). The reason for this is because the risks are high for farmers, who too often experience attacks from settlers; either directly, or indirectly, as burning, cutting, and uprooting trees and crops are just one of the many ways that settlers not only terrorize Palestinians, but confiscate land (in addition to the many other tactics that Israel uses to annex vast amounts of land [5]).

In the region where we (International Women's Peace Service) work, there are 19 Palestinian villages.  Now, in the same region, there are 23 settlements in the same area, having built entirely on stolen land, and persistently expanding. Above, the settlement of Havot Yair.  Below, the town of Deir Istiya, where we live and work out of.

Another way that Israel confiscates land (for the record, they do not ask, nor provide any sort of compensation - not that that would make theft and human rights violations okay!), is by mis-using and implementing an old law from the Ottoman empire.  The law was that if land lay fallow for three years, it would be declared "state land," but this is not only a warped version of a law in a different circumstance and time, but Israel fences off large portions of people's lands and then takes it after three years, under this law, even though Palestinians had no choice but to be cut off from it.  On top of losing the land, the olive trees on some of this land need to be tended to, otherwise they become fruitless... [7]

Even in the Jewish law of war:

"When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down" Deuteronomy 20:19

UNOCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

 - Nearly half (48%) of the agricultural land in the oPt is planted with 8 million ollive trees; the vast majorty are in the West Bank.

 - The olive oil industry makes of 14% of the agricultural income for the oPt and supports the livelihoods of approximately 80,000 families.

 - The number of Barrier gates increased to 73 in 2012 but the majority (52) are closed year round, except for the olive harvest period and only then for limited hours.

 - In 2011, 42% of applications for permits to access olive groves behind the Barrier submitted prior to the harvest season were rejected, compared to 39% in 2010.

 - In the West Bank, over 7,500 olive trees belonging to Palestinians were damaged or destroyed by Israeli settlers between January and mid October 2012 , some 2000 fewer than during the equivalent period in 2011.

 - Only one of the 162 complaints regarding settler attacks against Palestinian trees monitored by the Israeli NGO Yesh Din since 2005 has so far led to the indictment of suspect.

 - In the Gaza Strip, 7300 dunums of land along the perimeter fence with Israel that were previously planted with olive trees have been leveled during Israeli military operations.

"Israel Seizes 20 Dunams Near Salfit" [6]

Peace

“He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.” Genesis 8:11

To use a tree as a weapon is a mockery of life; it is a bold and cowardly form of conflict, it is an abuse of the natural world that is already turning on the human population that has too long abused it.

Will we respect and care for our fellow natural habitats? Or force them into a tool for war between ourselves, our own human brothers and sisters?

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.

- Indigenous Proverb

[1] http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/140579/israeli-settlers-burn-200-w-bank-olive-trees

[2] http://electronicintifada.net/content/olive-trees-burned-anti-palestinian-incitement-grips-galilee/13953

[3] http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/harvest-season-begins-israeli-settlers-burn-100-palestinian-olive-trees

[4] http://iwps.info/villages/wadi-qana/

[5] http://www.btselem.org/topic/planning_and_building

[6] http://www.imemc.org/article/69485

[7] http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/israel-palestine