This is a bit old but nevertheless gives you an idea of what Occupation and violence really means to the people of Palestine.
The Olive Trees Of Palestine WeepBy Sonja Karkar
07 September, 2007 Women For PalestineUniversally regarded as the symbol of peace, the olive tree has become the
object of violence.
For more than forty years, Israel has uprooted over one million olive trees and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees in Palestine with terrible economic and ecological consequences for the Palestinian people.Their willful destruction has so threatened Palestinian culture, heritage and
identity that the olive tree has now become the symbol of Palestinian
steadfastness because of its own rootedness and ability to survive in a land
where water is perennially scarce.
Throughout the centuries, Palestinian farmers have made their living from
olive cultivation and olive oil production; 80 percent of cultivated land in
the West Bank and Gaza is planted with olive trees. [1] In the West Bank
alone, some 100,000 families are dependent on olive sales. [2]Today, the olive
harvest provides Palestinian farmers with anywhere between 25 to 50 percent of
their annual income, and as the economic crisis deepens, the harvest provides
for many their basic means of survival. [3] But despite the hardships, it is
the festivities and traditions that accompany the weeks of harvesting that
have held Palestinian communities together and are, in fact, a demonstration
of their ownership of the land that no occupation can extinguish except by the
annihilation of Palestinian society itself.
And that is precisely what Israel has been doing -- through brute force and
far more insidious ways. Under an old law from the Ottoman era, Israel claims
as state property, land that has been "abandoned" and left uncultivated for a
period of four years and this land is then usually allocated to Israeli
settlers. Of course, the land has not been voluntarily abandoned.
Because of Israel's closure policy, which imposes the most draconian restrictions on movement, Palestinian farmers cannot reach their agricultural lands to tend and harvest their crops. Not only are permits required to move about in their own homeland, but farmers are forced to use alternative routes which must be negotiated on foot or by donkey because about 70 percent of these alternative routes -- those connected to main or bypass roads -- have been closed by the Israeli army with concrete blocks and ditches. And now a wall is being built for "security reasons" which will permanently separate Palestinian families from their farmlands, except for the gates that allow access at certain times, but more often than not, at the whim of Israeli soldiers who may not even turn up to open them. [4] This makes year-round maintenance of farmers' crops extremely difficult if not impossible. Hence, the "abandonment" of land that Israel uses to justify its land theft. Since 1967, the Israeli military and illegal settlers have destroyed more than one million olive trees claiming that stone throwers and gunmen hide behind them to attack the settlers. [5] This is a specious argument because these
trees grow deep inside Palestinian territory where no Israeli settler or
soldier should be in any case. But, Israel is intent on appropriating even the
last vestiges of land left to the Palestinians and so turns a blind eye to any
methods used by settlers and soldiers alike to terrorize the farmers away from
their farms and crops, even if that means razing their land.
Farmers are constantly under threat of being beaten and shot at, having their water supplies contaminated (already scarce because 85 percent of renewable water resources go to the settlers and Israel), their olive groves torched and their olive trees uprooted. [6]On a larger scale,
the Israeli military brings in the bulldozers to uproot trees in the way of the "security" wall's route and where they impede the development of infrastructure necessary to service the illegal settlements. Some of these threatened trees are 700 to 1,000 years old and are still producing olives. [7] These precious trees are being replaced by roads,
sewerage electricity, running water and telecommunications networks, Israeli
military barracks, training areas, industrial estates and factories leading to
massive despoliation of the environment. If Israel has its way, neither the
trees nor the Palestinians who have cared for them will survive the barbaric
ethnic and environmental cleansing of Palestine.
The irony of it all is that Israel's uprooting of olive trees is contrary to the Jewish halakhic principle whose origin is found in the Torah: "Even if you are at war with a city ... you must not destroy its trees" (Deut 20:19). Under
the pretext of "redeeming" the land the Jews claim God gave them and the trees
they are supposed to preserve, Israel continues to violently expropriate
Palestinian land. With each uprooted tree, another slab of concrete is put in
place for the wall and the illegal Jewish settlements -- the landscape
sculpted and changed beyond all recognition and no longer the sacrosanct place
that has long given Israel its spurious Biblical justification for
dispossessing the Palestinians of the land they have nurtured since time
immemorial.
The agonizing pain of loss felt by Palestinians for their ravaged land is not expressed in the statistics. Only those who have suffered the same cruel
violations or those who seek to protect and preserve the delicate balance of
the world's environment can understand what it means for people of the land.
International law, although on their side, remains ineffective as no world
government, not even the United Nations, is prepared to pressure Israel to
stop its illegal collective punishment of the entire Palestinian population.
Today, there are campaigns all around the world to end the uprooting of trees
in Palestine and to replant those which have already been uprooted. And each
year, when the Palestinian olive harvest approaches, international volunteers
join Palestinians to provide some human protection from the acts of violence
visited on Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers and soldiers who want to
stop the harvesting of crops. These wonderful acts of solidarity help to heal
the land, but they cannot heal the pain of those who have to watch the
uprooting of age-old olive trees, the desecration of their land and their
millennia-old heritage. Such heartbreaking reality has led the Palestinian
poet, Mahmoud Darwish, to say, "If the olive trees knew the hands that planted
them, their oil would have become tears ..."
Endnotes
[1] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affiars, "The Olive Harvest
in the West Bank and Gaza," October 2006.
[2] Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), "Olive Harvest in
Palestine. Another Season, Another Anguish," November 2004.
[3] Canaan Fair Trade,
www.olivecoop.com/Canaan.html.
[4] OXFAM, "Forgotten Villages: Struggling to survive under closure in the
West Bank," September 2002, p. 21.
[5] ARIJ, "Olive Harvest in Palestine. Another Season, Another Anguish,"
November 2004.
[6] UN Report of the Special Committee to investigate Israeli Practices
affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and other Arabs of the
Occupied Territories, No. 40, September 2005.
[7] Atyaf Alwazir, "Uprooting Olive trees in Palestine," Inventory of Conflict
and Environment
(ICE), Case Number: 110, American University, November 2002.
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For those who do not understand the background to the Palestinian issue, here is a long but excellent article explaining the history of it by Prof
Avi Shlaim, Oxford University Professor of International Relations.
Some excerpts:
"The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question."To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence."Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion's share of the scarce water resources."Those of you who would like to do something, please do read this call by Avaaz.org to sign a petition calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and then to find a non-military solution to the conflict.Dear friends,
The bloodshed in Gaza is escalating -- the death toll now stands at over 600 people and rising, almost half of them civilians and over 100 children dead.[1] As Israeli tanks, airplanes and artillery bombard thickly populated urban areas, hitting UN schools yesterday, thousands more have been injured and 1.5 million terrified civilians have no escape from this prison-like enclave -- the borders have been sealed. Hamas continues to fight and fire rockets deep into Israel: 11 Israelis have died, including from friendly fire.
Our worldwide call for an internationally-guaranteed ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides has begun to ring out loud and clear, winning the support of leaders in Europe, the Middle East and beyond: hopeful outlines of a deal are emerging.[2] But Israel is rejecting a truce for now and escalating its offensive, while US President Bush is blocking a negotiated UN ceasefire, trying instead to impose a skewed alternative that could legitimize Israel's suffocating isolation of Gaza.[3]
Enough is enough: these civilian deaths can't go on, and we can't let Bush and co block a fair, negotiated ceasefire. 250,000 of us have signed the ceasefire petition, let's make it half a million -- we'll publish it in a hard-hitting ad in the Washington Post and deliver it in meetings with UN Security Council members -- follow the link below to see the ad, sign the petition, and forward this message to all your friends and family:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/98.php?cl_tf_sign=1Our efforts really can make a difference -- Israel's own foreign minister admits that international pressure, if intense enough, could ensure a ceasefire. As the international community debates and delays, civilians are dying by the day. The top UN official in Gaza says, "There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized." Opposing a United Nations resolution, Bush reportedly proposes to exclude Hamas from any ceasefire deal and leave Israel a free hand, something that would guarantee that the violence continues. That's why we're targeting incoming President Obama and US decision-makers, as well as the European Union and other international leaders, to pursue a fair and stable resolution.
To be lasting, a ceasefire must protect civilians and end all attacks -- Israeli bombings and incursions as well as the rockets Palestinian factions fire into southern Israel. International supervision is desperately needed at the borders, to reopen Gaza's borders and crossings for food, fuel, medicine and goods, to prevent weapon-smuggling which has only grown under the blockade, and to monitor and enforce the ceasefire on both sides.[4]
Hamas, which won elections in 2006 and now runs Gaza, suggests it will agree to such a ceasefire.[5] It should be challenged to live up to its word just like Israel. There is no military solution for either side -- it's time for world powers to step in, advancing a fair deal to protect civilians on all sides and let them live their lives in peace and security. Sign the petition now at the link below and send this message to everyone you know -- we'll publish it in The Washington Post and elsewhere, and seek face-to-face meetings to deliver the petition with the Obama team, the UN Security Council and European leaders:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/98.php?cl_tf_sign=1With hope and determination,
Paul, Graziela, Ricken, Luis, Alice, Brett, Ben, Iain, Paula, Veronique, Milena and the whole Avaaz team
P.S. We wrote to European, US and Arab leaders last week about our campaign, and received several responses -- now we need to escalate the pressure. For a report on many of Avaaz's other campaigns so far, see:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2Sources:
1. Associated Press: "Israel Shells Near UN School, killing at least 30" (5 January 2009)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HTJE002. "Gaza: outlines of an endgame", Ghassan Khatib (6 January 2009)
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/gaza-outlines-of-an-endgameAl-Jazeera: "Arab ministers hold UN ceasefire talks" (6 January 2009):
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/20091522052418539.htmlAssociated Press: "Diplomats seek truce as civilian toll rises" (5 January 2009):
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HCD4G33. Israel Today: "Israel rejects European, UN efforts for immediate ceasefire" (5 January 2009):
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=17938Yediot Aharonot: "Israel examining international treaty to isolate Hamas" (5 January 2009)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3650522,00.html4. These parameters are advocated by a broad range of experts and policymakers. See for example International Crisis Group's Ending the War in Gaza report (5 January 2009):
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5838&l=15. Reuters: "Hamas seeks truce but says lifting siege a must" (5 January 2009)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L5111105.htmStrikingly, the US Army War College has just released a substantial report supporting the view that Hamas can and must be brought into negotiations and is capable of sustaining a long-term truce, or even peace with Israel. Linked via:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/node/10703The inside story of the civil strife between Fatah and Hamas and the Bush administration's involvement in this debacle is best-told in The Gaza Bombshell, an investigative article published in the leading US magazine Vanity Fair in April 2008:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804This news item from November 2008 provides more background to the story of how the Israel-Hamas truce collapsed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians
