Israel is massively uprooting olive trees in Palestine !

Photo by Christoph Gocke (EAPPI)

Israeli government and Militant Settlers have been uprooting olive trees in Palestine. More than 2400 olive trees have been uprooted recently in the West Bank by settlers. These trees are sometimes the only income and source of economic survival for Palestinian families. Israel is 'investigating' by appointing a committee : ''But the act of appointing a committee is nothing but an evasion of responsibility and a continuation of the debacle that has been going on for almost a year in an area of which Mofaz himself is in charge.''
Humanitarian organizations are helping Palestinians to press charges. However, most of the files are closed by Israeli authorities without pressing charges because the law in Israel is not made for the Palestinians, it is made only for the Israelis. To the point that the attorney general is now asking the government to compensate Palestinians.

But how would one compensate for this ? It takes 3 years to grow a baby tree before planting it. It takes 10 to 15 years for the tree to start significantly producing olives and it takes another 10 to 15 years more to grow and attain full production.

In Lebanon, when I was a child, old trees were venered, you had to treat them really carefully when harvesting. In addition, it takes for the olive tree to grow mature as long as it takes for a human child, so for peasants, whose only income comes from these trees, the tree is a part of the family, exactly like the children.

Growing an olive tree is the work of a lifetime and Israelis know very well the implications of their actions, they have been living among olive trees for more than 70 years now. But by uprooting olive trees, their goal is to deny the Palestinians, not only their country and a peaceful and dignified existence, but also their culture and their history and every element of it, including olive trees. This is part of the process of the dehumanization of the Palestinians that is going on in Israel right now at the hands of the settlers with the connivance of the Israeli state.

If you want to help grow olive trees in Palestine for the next palestinian generation, please go to this site.