How the olive tree came to symbolize Palestinian national identity

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Olive trees have for centuries provided a steady source of income from the sale of their fruit and the silky, golden oil derived from it - and encapsulate the Palestinian identity wholly. (Supplied/Sliman Mansour)
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Updated 28 November 2021
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How the olive tree came to symbolize Palestinian national identity

  • The trees feature prominently in Palestinian art and literature as symbols of steadfastness amid a life of displacement 
  • Since the West Bank olive harvest began on Oct. 12, observers say settlers have attacked farmers and uprooted trees regularly

AMMAN: Few things encapsulate the Palestinian identity quite like the humble olive tree. It roots an entire nation to a land and livelihood lost to occupation, while serving as a potent symbol of resistance against the territorial encroachment of illegal settlements.

In the balmy Mediterranean climate of the Levant, olive trees have for centuries provided a steady source of income from the sale of their fruit and the silky, golden oil derived from it.

To this day, between 80,000 and 100,000 families in the Palestinian territories rely on olives and their oil as primary or secondary sources of income. The industry accounts for about 70 percent of local fruit production and contributes about 14 percent to the local economy.

It is perhaps no surprise, then, that these hardy trees feature so prominently in Palestinian art and literature, even in the far-flung diaspora, as symbols of rootedness in an age of displacement, self-sufficiency in times of hardship, and peace in periods of war.




Olive trees provide Palestinians with a vital part of their diet, but have also become a symbol of hope and unity. (Supplied)

“It represents the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, who are able to live under difficult circumstances,” Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian painter in Jerusalem whose art has long focused on the theme of land, told Arab News.

“In the same way that the trees can survive and have deep roots in their land so, too, do the Palestinian people.”

Mahmoud Darwish, the celebrated Palestinian poet who died in 2008, sprinkled his works with references to olives. In his 1964 poetry collection “Leaves of the Olive Tree,” he wrote: “Olive is an evergreen tree; Olive will stay evergreen; Like a shield for the universe.”

Such is the economic and symbolic power of the olive tree in Palestinian national life that the rural communities that have tended these crops for generations are routinely targeted by illegal settlers attempting to denude families of their land and living.

Since the olive harvest began on Oct. 12 this year, observers in the West Bank have reported Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian villages on an almost daily basis, beating farmers, spraying crops with chemicals and uprooting olive trees by the hundreds.

FASTFACTS

* The land around the Sea of Galilee was once the world’s most important olive region.

* The area was the site of the earliest olive cultivation, dating back to 5,000 B.C.

* Southern Spain and southeastern Italy are now the biggest olive-oil-producing regions.

Such violence and vandalism is nothing new. The International Committee of the Red Cross said more than 9,300 trees were destroyed in the West Bank between Aug. 2020 and Aug. 2021 alone, compounding the already damaging effects of climate change.

“For years, the ICRC has observed a seasonal peak in violence by Israeli settlers residing in certain settlements and outposts in the West Bank toward Palestinian farmers and their property in the period leading up to the olive-harvest season, as well as during the harvest season itself in October and November,” Els Debuf, head of the ICRC’s mission in Jerusalem, said recently.

“Farmers also experience acts of harassment and violence that aim at preventing a successful harvest, not to mention the destruction of farming equipment, or the uprooting and burning of olive trees.”

According to independent observers appointed by the UN, the violence attributed to Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has worsened in recent months amid “an atmosphere of impunity.”

In response to these attacks, Palestinian farmers have been forced to plant about 10,000 new olive trees in the West Bank each year to prevent the region’s 5,000-year-old industry from dying out.




The humble plant continues to have a special place in the hearts of the Palestinian people and their quest for statehood. (Supplied)

Nabil Anani, a celebrated Palestinian painter, ceramicist and sculptor, believes the olive tree is a powerful national symbol that must be protected at all costs.

“For me it is both a national and artistic symbol; it reflects the nature and beauty of Palestine,” Anani, who is considered one of the founders of contemporary Palestinian art, told Arab News. “Our traditions, culture, poems and songs are often centered around the tree.”

To the west of Ramallah, the administrative heart of the Palestine government, Anani said the hillsides bristle with olive trees as far as the eye can see.

“They cover entire mountains and it is one of the most pleasant views that anyone can observe,” he added.

INNUMBERS

* 48% - Proportion of agricultural land in the West Bank and Gaza devoted to olive trees.

* 70% - Share of total fruit production in Palestine provided by olives

* 14% - Contribution of olives to the Palestinian economy.

* 93% - Proportion of the olive harvest used to make olive oil.

The late Fadwa Touqan, one of the most respected female poets in Palestinian literature, saw olive trees as symbols of unity with nature and of hope for the renewal and rebirth of Palestine.

In a 1993 poem, she wrote: “The roots of the olive tree are from my soil and they are always fresh; Its lights are emitted from my heart and it is inspired; Until my creator filled my nerve, root and body; So, he got up while shaking its leaves due to maturity created within him.”

More than just a source of income and artistic inspiration, however, olives also form a vital part of the Palestinian diet and culinary culture. Pickled olives feature in breakfasts, lunches and dinners, providing significant nutritional health benefits.

Olive oil, meanwhile, is used in scores of recipes, the most popular of which is zaatar w zeit: fluffy flatbread dipped in oil and then dabbed liberally in a thyme-based powder that includes sesame seeds and spices.

Beyond the dinner table, olive oil historically has had many other uses: As a source of fuel in oil lamps, a natural treatment for dry hair, nails and skin, and even as an insecticide.




Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian painter in Jerusalem whose art has long focused on the theme of land. (Supplied)

It is not only the fruit and its oil that the olive tree contributes to the cultural and economic life of Palestine. Olive pits, the hard stones in the center of the fruit, have long been repurposed to make strings of prayer beads used by Muslims and Christians alike.

As for the leaves and branches of the trees, they are trimmed during the harvest season to be used as feed for sheep and goats, while the broad canopy of the olive grove provides animals and their shepherds with welcome shade from the relentless afternoon sun.

The wood of felled trees has also been widely used in the carving of religious icons as far back as the 16th century, and as a source of firewood before the modern profusion of gas. In fact, the glassmakers of Hebron, who are famed for their stained glass, continue to use charcoal derived from olive trees to fire their kilns.

While the quantifiably beneficial uses of the olive tree are many, perhaps what is even more valuable to Palestinians is the inspiration it has provided to poets, painters and prophets down the ages, not to mention the special place it continues to occupy in their culture and quest for statehood.

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Israeli police use water cannons, arrest dozens as protesters demand hostage deal

Updated 17 August 2025
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Israeli police use water cannons, arrest dozens as protesters demand hostage deal

  • The protests come more than a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to capture Gaza City, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory
  • Forty nine captives remain in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead

JERUSALEM: Israeli police blasted crowds with water cannons and made dozens of arrests on Sunday as protesters demanding a hostage deal escalated their campaign Sunday with a one-day nationwide strike that blocked roads and closed businesses.

The “day of stoppage” was organized by two groups representing some of the families of hostages and bereaved families, weeks after militant groups released videos of emaciated hostages and Israel announced plans for a new offensive.

Protesters fear further fighting could endanger the hostages who were seized by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 – the attack that triggered the war – and are believed to still be alive in captivity. Israel believes that some 20 are still alive, with Hamas holding the remains of about 30 others.

“We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages,” protesters chanted.

They gathered at dozens of points throughout Israel, including outside politicians’ homes, military headquarters and on major highways, where they were sprayed with water cannons as they blocked lanes and lit bonfires. Some restaurants and theaters closed in solidarity.

In Tel Aviv, among the protesters was a woman carrying a photo of an emaciated child from Gaza. Such images were once rare at Israeli demonstrations but now appear more often as outrage grows over conditions there.

Police said they had arrested 38 people as part of the nationwide demonstration – one of the fiercest since the uproar over six hostages found dead in Gaza last September.

“Military pressure doesn’t bring hostages back – it only kills them,” former hostage Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv’s hostage square. “The only way to bring them back is through a deal, all at once, without games.”

Netanyahu and allies oppose any deal that leaves Hamas in power

“Today, we stop everything to save and bring back the hostages and soldiers. Today, we stop everything to remember the supreme value of the sanctity of life,” said Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest. “Today, we stop everything to join hands – right, left, center and everything in between.”

Protesters at highway intersections handed out yellow ribbons, the symbol that represents the hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which organized the stoppage, said.

Still, an end to the conflict does not appear near. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the immediate release of the hostages but is balancing competing pressures, haunted by the potential for mutiny within his coalition.

“Those who today call for an end to the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas’s position and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of Oct. 7 will be repeated,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, in an apparent reference to the demonstrations.

The last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages, far-right members of his cabinet threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called the stoppage “a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas’ hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardize its security and future.”


Hamas rejects Israel’s Gaza relocation plan

Updated 17 August 2025
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Hamas rejects Israel’s Gaza relocation plan

  • The group said Israel’s Gaza relocation plan was a “blatant deception”

CAIRO: Hamas said on Sunday that Israel’s Gaza relocation plan constitutes a “new wave of genocide and displacement” for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area.
The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel in southern Gaza Strip was a “blatant deception.”


Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 18

Updated 17 August 2025
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 18

  • UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in Gaza
  • Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 18 Palestinians on Sunday, including seven people shot dead while waiting to collect food aid.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that seven people were killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a hospital courtyard in Gaza City, in the territory’s north.

Witnesses said the victims were members of a Hamas unit, which a source from the Palestinian militant group described as responsible for distributing aid and “fighting thieves.”

There was no comment from the Israeli military, which is preparing a broader offensive in Gaza City and has sent ground forces to the city’s Zeitun neighborhood in recent days.

After more than 22 months of war, UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in Gaza, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in and convoys have been repeatedly looted.

Witnesses on Sunday reported Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into the morning.

Bassal said four people were killed in a strike that hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern area of Khan Yunis.

The civil defense spokesman said Israel continues its intense bombardment of Gaza City’s Zeitun, where troops have carried out a ground operation for the past week.

He said there were many casualties, but civil defense crews were facing “enormous difficulties reaching those trapped under the rubble” due to the ongoing violence and lack of equipment.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swaths of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.

Israel on Saturday hinted at an approaching call to push civilians from Gaza City ahead of the new offensive demanded by the security cabinet.

A defense ministry statement said that “as part of the preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection, the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza will resume.”

Hamas later slammed the move, saying the announcement was part of a “brutal assault to occupy Gaza City.”

On the ground on Sunday, Bassal said six people were killed by Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution point in the south.

Another person was killed near an aid site in central Gaza, Bassal added, with a nearby hospital saying the body had been taken there.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,897 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.


Iraq starts work on Daesh mass grave thought to contain thousands

Updated 17 August 2025
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Iraq starts work on Daesh mass grave thought to contain thousands

  • Exhuming the bodies from Khasfa is particularly difficult as underground sulfur water makes the earth very porous

BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities have begun excavating the site of a mass grave believed to contain thousands of victims of the Daesh group near Mosul city, the project’s director said on Sunday.

The first phase, which was launched on August 10, includes surface-level excavation at the Khasfa site, director Ahmed Assadi said.

An AFP correspondent visiting the site in northern Iraq on Sunday said the team unearthed human skulls buried in the sand.

Khasfa is located near Mosul, where Daesh had established the capital of their self-declared “caliphate” before being defeated in Iraq in late 2017.

Assadi said that there were no precise figures for the numbers of victims buried there – one of dozens of mass graves Daesh left behind in Iraq – but a UN report from 2018 said Khasfa was likely the country’s largest.

Official estimates put the number of bodies buried at the site at least 4,000, with the possibility of thousands more.

The project director said the victims buried there include “soldiers executed by Daesh,” members of the Yazidi minority and residents of Mosul.

Exhuming the bodies from Khasfa is particularly difficult, Assadi said, as underground sulfur water makes the earth very porous.

The water may have also eroded the human remains, complicating DNA identification of victims, he added.

Assadi said further studies will be required before his team can dig deeper and exhume bodies at the site – a sinkhole about 150-meter (nearly 500-foot) deep and 110-meter wide.

Iraqi authorities said it was the site of “one of the worst massacres” committed by Daesh militants, executing 280 in a single day in 2016, many of them interior ministry employees.

In a lightning advance that began in 2014, Daesh had seized large swathes Iraq and neighboring Syria, enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread abuses.

The United Nations estimates the militants left behind more than 200 mass graves which might contain as many as 12,000 bodies.

In addition to Daesh-era mass graves, Iraqi authorities continue to unearth such sites dating to the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2003.


250 flee as Turkish rescuers battle wildfire in Gallipoli

Updated 17 August 2025
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250 flee as Turkish rescuers battle wildfire in Gallipoli

  • The fire began on Saturday in the northwestern province of Canakkale, and spread quickly due to high winds in the hills near the town of Gelibolu

ISTANBUL: More than 250 people were evacuated overnight as a wildfire raged on the Gallipoli peninsula flanking the Dardanelles Strait, where Turkish firefighters were battling Sunday to quench the blaze, officials said.
The fire began on Saturday in the northwestern province of Canakkale, and spread quickly due to high winds in the hills near the town of Gelibolu, on the shores of the busy shipping strait.
“As a precaution, 251 residents from five villages were relocated to safe areas,” Canakkale governor Omer Toraman wrote on X.
Footage showed the hillsides illuminated by bright flames while huge clouds of smoke poured into the night air.
Toraman said the province, a popular destination for tourists visiting the ancient ruins of Troy, as well as the Gallipoli battleground where thousands of soldiers died in World War I, had suffered “extremely severe drought” over the past year.
While the weather has been fairly normal for the time of year, much of northwestern Turkiye has suffered strong winds in recent days, although they eased off on Sunday.
Firefighters worked through the night, with 12 planes and 18 helicopters rejoining the efforts at first light in an operation involving 900 people, the forestry directorate said on X.
The authority in charge of the war memorials said on X that access to historical sites near the town of Eceabat had been closed “due to the ongoing forest fire.”
On Monday, another fire on the other side of the strait forced 2,000 people to flee, with around 80 treated for smoke inhalation.
Several days earlier, another fire forced the evacuation of 120 people and the suspension of shipping through the Dardanelles Strait, which links the Mediterranean with the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 192 wildfires in Turkiye this year, which have ravaged more than 110,373 hectares (273,000 acres) of land.
Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkiye to take measures to tackle the problem.