Olive cultivation in Palestine

File:Crushing Olives Palestine 1900-1920.jpg

Olive trees have been cultivated in the region for many thousands of years, with some evidence of olive groves and olive oil technologies dating to the Chalcolithic period, between 3600–3300 BCE.{{cite journal|last1=Liphschitz|first1=Nili|last2=Gophna|first2=Ram|last3=Hartman|first3=Moshe|last4=Biger|first4=Gideon|title=The beginning of olive (olea europaea) cultivation in the old world: A reassessment|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=18|issue=4|year=1991|pages=441–453|issn=0305-4403|doi=10.1016/0305-4403(91)90037-P}}{{cite journal|last1=Kaniewski|first1=David|last2=Van Campo|first2=Elise|last3=Boiy|first3=Tom|last4=Terral|first4=Jean-Frédéric|last5=Khadari|first5=BouchaÏb|last6=Besnard|first6=Guillaume|title=Primary domestication and early uses of the emblematic olive tree: palaeobotanical, historical and molecular evidence from the Middle East|journal=Biological Reviews|volume=87|issue=4|year=2012|pages=885–899|issn=1464-7931|doi=10.1111/j.1469-185X.2012.00229.x|pmid=22512893|s2cid=44494173}} Later in the Bronze Age, olive fruits were widely traded as shown by the Uluburun shipwreck – which may have been carrying an olive shipment from Palestine.

Olives and olive oil had a significant role in all of the major religions which developed in the region. In the Jewish scriptures, olives were seen as part of the blessings of the Promised land and were a symbol of prosperity. In the New Testament, the Mount of Olives has an important role and the anointing with oil is part of Christian and Islamic religious practice.{{cite book|author=Viktoria Hassouna|title=Virgin Olive Oil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBOC_RQPUvcC&pg=PA23|year=2010|publisher=BoD – Books on Demand|isbn=978-3-8391-7505-7|pages=23–}}

In the period between 1700 and 1900, the area around Nablus had developed to be the major area for olive production,{{cite book|author=Beshara Doumani|title=Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zry-tpH3rz8C&pg=PA33|date=12 October 1995|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-91731-6|pages=33–}} and the olive oil was used in lieu of money. The oil was stored in deep wells in the ground in the city and surrounding villages which was then used by merchants to make payments.

By the late 19 century, cash crops in the region were being rapidly expanded to the extent that by 1914 there were 475 thousand dunam of olive groves (about 47.5 thousand hectares or 112 thousand acres) across the area that is now Israel and the Palestinian territories.{{cite book|author=Dāwid Qûšnêr|title=Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period: Political, Social, and Economic Transformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XgRDT9wMUhYC&pg=PA195|year=1986|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-07792-8|pages=195–}}

In the late Ottoman period before the First World War, olive oil produced near Nablus was hard to export due to its relatively high acidity, high price and limited shelf-life.{{cite book|author1=Mustafa Abbasi|author2=Ami Ayalo|author3=David De Vries|title=Haifa Before & After 1948: Narratives of a Mixed City: Part 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dai-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA101|date=1 August 2011|publisher=Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation|isbn=978-90-8979-092-7|pages=101–}}

During the British Mandate era, production of olives more than doubled from the 1920s to the 1940s.{{cite book|author=Charles S. Kamen|title=Little Common Ground: Arab Agriculture and Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 1920–1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kPffILYg_gC&pg=PA205|date=15 July 1991|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre|isbn=978-0-8229-7672-1|pages=205–}}

After the occupation of Palestine, Israeli forces targeted olive trees as a primary form of land acquisition and began to uproot Palestinian olive trees in 1967, with an estimated 830,000 olive trees uprooted between 1967 and 2009.{{Cite web|url=http://www.miftah.org/Doc/Factsheets/Miftah/English/factsheet-OliveTrees.pdf|title=Olive Trees - More Than Just a Tree in Palestine|date=2009|website=Miftah}}

The olive harvest was the primary source of income for Palestinians during the first Intifada and was so essential for the Palestinian communities that public institutions, universities, and public schools closed for the olive season so as many people as possible could help with the harvest.{{Cite journal|last=Abufarha|first=Nasser|date=3 Jun 2008|title=Land of Symbols: Cactus, Poppies, Orange and Olive Trees and Palestine|doi=10.1080/10702890802073274|journal=Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power|volume=15|issue=3|pages=343–368|s2cid=143956974}}

In 2014, UNESCO designated Battir as a World Heritage site because of its agricultural significance as its olive production characterizes the landscape through "extensive agricultural terraces, water springs, ancient irrigation systems, human-settlement remains, olive presses, and an historic core."{{Cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/document/167422|title=Executive Summary|date=2014|website=whc.unesco.org}}

Currently, olive oil is an essential export for Palestinians in the West Bank. Marketing consultant Robert Massoud states, "There is very little Palestinians can export but olive oil."{{Cite journal|last=Twair|first=Pat McDonnell|date=Dec 2007|title=Palestine in a Bottle|journal=The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs|volume=26|issue=9|pages=64–65}} This dependence on olive oil exports is widespread throughout the West Bank to the point that, to most villagers, olive oil represents economic security.

File:Olive fields in as-Samu IMG 3361.jpg|thumb]]

The vast majority of the olive harvest is pressed in the West Bank mostly around the town of Jenin where most of the olive oil presses are located.

Olive oil produced in Palestine is primarily consumed locally.{{cite book|title=The State of Palestine National Export Strategy: Olive Oil|date=2014|publisher=ITC and Paltrade|url=https://www.paltrade.org/upload/multimedia/admin/2014/10/5448e7bfb7b6d.pdf|access-date=2016-03-24|archive-date=2016-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405064326/https://www.paltrade.org/upload/multimedia/admin/2014/10/5448e7bfb7b6d.pdf|url-status=dead}} The natural olive tree cycle of high-yield years followed by low-yield years has caused large fluctuations in production, but on average there is an excess of around 4,000 tonnes of olive oil produced per year. Of this, the biggest market is likely to be to Israel – although the data is not collected, making the destination of the oil hard to assess. The rest is exported to Europe, North America and the Gulf states.

The International Olive Council estimates that the average production of Palestinian olive oil was 22,000 tonnes per year with 6,500 tonnes exported in 2014/15.{{cite web|title=World Olive Oil Figures|website=International Olive Council|date=2015}}

The main olive cultivars used in the Palestinian territories are Chemlali, Jebbah, Barnea, Manzolino, Nabali Baladi, Nabali Mohassan, Shami and Souri.{{cite book|last1=Qutub, M|last2=Ali, S|last3=Mutawea, M|title=Characterisation of the Main Palestinian olive cultivars and olive oil|date=2010|publisher=Paltrade|url=http://www.afd.fr/webdav/shared/PORTAILS/PAYS/JERUSALEM_2/First%20edition%20manual_Characterisation%20of%20the%20main%20Palestinian%20cultivars%20and%20olive%20oil.pdf|access-date=23 March 2016|display-authors=etal}} Molecular characterisation of Nabali Baladi, Nabali Mohassan and Surri cultivars from olive trees growing in the West Bank has shown that they are true cultivars with measurable differences.{{cite journal|last1=Obaid|first1=Ramiz|last2=Abu-Qaoud|first2=Hassan|last3=Arafeh|first3=Rami|title=Molecular characterization of three common olive (Olea europaeaL.) cultivars in Palestine, using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers|journal=Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment|volume=28|issue=5|year=2014|pages=813–817|issn=1310-2818|doi=10.1080/13102818.2014.957026|pmid=26019564|pmc=4433930}}

Olive trees are seen as being a major component of traditional Palestinian farming life, with several generations of families gathering together to harvest the olives for two months from mid-September.{{cite book|title=Challenging post-conflict environments : sustainable agriculture|last1=Darweish, M|date=2012|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=9781409434825|editor1-last=Özerdem, A|location=Farnham, Surrey, England|pages=175–188|chapter=Chapter 13: Olive Trees: Livelihoods and Resistance|editor2-last=Roberts, R}} The harvest season is often associated with celebration for these families, and family and local community celebrations are organised with traditional Palestinian folk music and dancing.

Anthropologist Anne Meneley describes her olive-picking experience as community oriented:

We are hot and dusty and sometimes clumsy as we negotiate the rough rocks that surround the olive trees. Our Palestinian hosts bring us most welcome cool water and juice and hot sweet tea and coffee. There is communitas of sorts in this shared labor: we feel that we are contributing something, however symbolic, to the Palestinian cause.{{Cite journal|last=Meneley|first=Anne|date=2014|title=The Accidental Pilgrims: Olive Pickers in Palestine|journal=Religion and Society: Advances in Research|volume=5|pages=186–199}}

As olive cultivation is a significant aspect of Palestinian culture, the uprooting of olive trees by Israeli settlers is a prominent point of concern in Palestinian culture. Poet Mourid Barghouti describes olive trees as "the identity card that doesn't need stamps or photos and whose validity doesn't expire with the death of the owner" and "with each olive tree uprooted by Israeli bulldozers, a family tree of Palestinian peasants falls from the wall."{{Cite book|title=Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home|last=Shehadeh|first=Raja|publisher=Olive Branch Press|year=2013|location=Northampton, Massachusetts|chapter=The Driver Mahmoud}}

Religiously, "the Holy Books refer more often to the vine and the olive tree"{{Cite journal|last=Canaan|first=Tawfiq|date=2005|title=Plant-Lore in Palestinian Superstition|url=http://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/24_canaan_1.pdf|journal=Jerusalem Quarterly|volume=24|pages=57–64}} than to prophets. Muslim teaching also holds olives in high regard as "the Almighty is even believed to have himself taken an oath by the olive tree."

More recently, the olive tree is a symbol of rootedness. After the Israel Defense Forces defeated the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1982 Lebanon War, the olive became a symbol for Palestinian identity. Because "olive trees are a prominent feature of the mountainous region of the landscape in the West Bank," Palestinians began to "draw connections between their ancient presence in Palestine and that of the ancient olive tree rooted in the land of Palestine."

Olive trees also have a nationalist connotation in Palestinian culture. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1974, Yasser Arafat stated that Zionist terrorism targeted the olive tree because it "has been a proud symbol" and "living reminder that the land is Palestinian."{{Cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/A238EC7A3E13EED18525624A007697EC|title=Agenda Item 108: Question of Palestine (continued)|date=13 Nov 1974|website=unispal.un.org}} He concluded the speech with a nationalist reference to the olive branch:

Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

{{Further|Israeli settler violence#Olive destruction}}

In her 2009 publication entitled Tree Flags, legal scholar and ethnographer, Irus Braverman, describes how Palestinians identify olive groves as an emblem or symbol of their longtime, steadfast agricultural connection (tsumud) to the land.{{cite conference |url=http://www.yale.edu/agrarianstudies/colloqpapers/13braverman.pdf |title=Planted Flags: Trees, Land, and Law in Israel/Palestine |access-date=23 January 2015 |conference=Yale Agrarian Studies Colloquium |location=Buffalo, New York |pages=54 |date=28 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131223002/http://www.yale.edu/agrarianstudies/colloqpapers/13braverman.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2013 }}{{rp|1}}{{cite news |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/12/deep-roots-palestine-israel-conflict-20141210124112822321.html |access-date=23 January 2015 |title=The deep roots of the Palestine-Israel conflict: Palestinians have tended olive groves for decades, but Israelis are staking a claim by planting their own trees |first=Bethan |last=Staton | date=21 January 2015 |location=Israel/Palestine }}{{cite book |first=Irus |last=Braverman |year=2009 |title=Planted Flags: Trees, Land, and Law in Israel/Palestine |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521760027 }}

Similar destruction of olive trees occurred in Jabal Jales (an area near Hebron) and in Huwara.{{cite news |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/battle-between-israel-palestine-being-fought-olive-fields-100-trees-torched-1471595 |title=Palestine: Jewish Settlers Torch 100 of World's Oldest Olive Trees |first=Tabatha |last=Kinder |date=24 October 2014 |access-date=22 January 2015 |work=International Business News}} The United Nations reported that by 2013, 11,000 olive trees owned by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank had been damaged or destroyed.{{cite news |title=In West Bank, Palestinians gird for settler attacks on olive trees |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-west-bank-palestinians-gird-for-settler-attacks-on-olive-trees/2014/10/21/eb4f5096-54a8-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html |access-date=23 January 2015 |first=William |last=Booth |date=22 October 2014 |location=Kfar Yassug, West Bank}}{{citation |work=United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL) |title=Nearly 11,000 Palestinian-owned trees damaged by Israeli settlers in 2013 |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/6AFAE8EA35DC1DD085257C54005CB175#sthash.wYK54Pqs.dpuf |access-date=23 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150122221356/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/6AFAE8EA35DC1DD085257C54005CB175#sthash.wYK54Pqs.dpuf |archive-date=22 January 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} Washington Post, October 2014:

{{blockquote|"More than 80,000 Palestinian farmers derive a substantial portion of their annual income from olives. Harvesting the fruit, pressing the oil, selling and sharing the produce is a ritual of life."|}}

In 2012 Israel was urged to protect West Bank olive trees after trees were uprooted in al-Mughir, Turmusaya, Nablus, al-Khader, and Ras Karkar.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/15/israel-oliver-trees-settler-attacks|title=Israel urged to protect West Bank olive trees after settler attacks|date=15 Oct 2012|website=The Guardian|access-date=2018-07-14}} In 2014 trees were uprooted in Deir Istiya and Wadi Qana with some 800,000 to one million trees having been destroyed since 1967.{{Cite web|url=https://theecologist.org/2015/nov/07/destruction-palestinian-olive-trees-monstrous-crime|title=Destruction of Palestinian olive trees is a monstrous crime|date=7 Nov 2015|website=Ecologist|access-date=2018-07-14}} In 2016 trees were uprooted to build a road in Qalqilya.{{Cite web|url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160509-israel-uproots-olive-trees-in-qalqilya-to-build-settler-road/|title=Israel uproots olive trees in Qalqilya to build settler road|date=9 May 2016|website=Middle East Monitor|access-date=2018-07-14}} In 2017 laborers began uprooting olive trees to build a bypass road near Azzun and Nabi Ilyas. According to international law{{Cite web|url=https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/470-750069|title=Protection of Objects Indispensable to the Survival of the Civilian Population|date=5 Feb 2017|website=ICRC|access-date=2018-07-14}} an occupying power can only take land to build roads benefiting the residents or military needs specific to the occupied territory. In January 2017 B’Tselem reported there were approximately {{Convert| 60|km}} of roads that Palestinian were prohibited from using.{{Cite web|url=https://www.btselem.org/20170205_nabi_elyas_bypass_road_land_confiscation#full|title=Some 1,000 olive trees uprooted to build bypass road on 'Azzun village land|date=5 Feb 2017|website=www.btselem.org|access-date=2018-07-14}} With the many trees being removed or vandalized, some 700 to 1000 years old and still bearing fruit, to build a wall roads, other "improvements", as well as for the building of illegal settlements this has caused economic hardships especially with families separated from their farmlands.{{Cite book|title=The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction|last=Cook|first=W.|publisher=Springer|pages=51–53|chapter=The Olive Trees of Palestine Weep|date=2010-08-18}}- Retrieved 2018-07-14

In 2021 down to October, settlers vandalized 8,000 trees in the West Bank. In the first two weeks of the 2021 harvest in October alone, 18 incidents of damage to Palestinian olive groves, consisting of acts of battering or chopping down trees or denuding their fruits were reported.Gideon Levy, [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-a-nightmare-season-in-the-west-bank-1.10317490 ‘A Nightmare Season in the West Bank,’] Haaretz 22 October 2021.

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Olives in Palestine}}

{{Olives|state=collapsed}}

Category:Agriculture in Palestine

Category:Culture of Palestine (region)

Category:Environment of Palestine

Palestine