"I feel as if I were living in South Africa"

Saady Abu-Hatoum, Arab Association for Human Rights, 14 February 2008
(This report is the second in a series of Discrimination Diaries by the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA), shedding light on the rights situation of Palestinians in Israel. All images by HRA)

"......Palestine has always been closely associated with the olive tree. The native Palestinians admired the olive for its splendid appearance, with its fresh green leaves and powerful roots that can penetrate rocks, and for the diverse properties of olives and olive oil. Olives are used as a staple food item, while olive oil is used for lighting, moisturizing the skin, curing various ailments and wounds, and strengthening the skin and muscles. Olives were also used to manufacture ink and soap. The olive tree has a remarkable capacity to bear fruit over hundreds and even thousands of years. In the Galilee and Jerusalem there are some olive trees that are over two thousand years old and which still bear fruit......


This story emphasizes once again the way in which Israel tramples on everything that this region and place symbolize for the Palestinian residents, the indigenous inhabitants of the land. Uprooting olive trees in an Arab village and the goals and motives that lie behind such actions constitute a deviation from nature, changing the natural landscape of the village and the surrounding area. Israel attempts to alter the natural indigenous character of the land in order to build European-style residential areas, in a setting in which these do not belong. In order to create this alternative environment, Israel must uproot the olive tree -- the central emblem of Palestine and the symbol of peace. This reality underscores the heavy price paid by the indigenous inhabitants of the land for the establishment of a Jewish state in "Zion.""