The first initiatives to form the Zionist movement began in the mid-19th century, instigated by French and British colonial powers seeking to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Their aim was to control the resources of the Arab region and its surroundings by fragmenting it and creating internal conflicts, thus keeping it weak, divided, and dependent on the colonial powers under the pretext of protection. The initial reports from exploratory missions indicated that this was a fertile land with deeply rooted inhabitants, making their uprooting impossible, contrary to the hopes of the Zionist movement and its backers.
Therefore, the first Zionist Jewish immigration to Palestine sought to establish agricultural settlements, attempting to integrate themselves into the land and assimilate into its culture, so that the immigrants would appear as the original inhabitants. After the establishment of the Zionist occupation state – Israel – its first decisions included seizing complete control of the land from which its inhabitants were displaced through massacres, demolition, and the burning of trees and crops.
The first Israeli Prime Minister, Ben-Gurion, declared that he would reside in the Naqab desert to encourage Jewish immigrants to remain on the land and work in agriculture. Ariel Sharon did the same, establishing a large private farm in the Naqab. All of this was aimed at making the Zionist immigrant resemble the Palestinian citizen, paving the way for the claim that this immigrant is the rightful owner of this land. Israel began with a falsehood misattributed to the Jewish religion and proceeded with lies, adopting and imitating the behaviors, customs, traditions, and cultural identity of the Palestinian people.
The Israeli occupation succeeded in driving a large number of Palestinian farmers away from cultivating crops, vegetables, and many orchards by flooding the local market with Israeli produce. This rendered Palestinian agricultural output unprofitable for many. However, the occupation also observed the Palestinians` deep attachment to the olive tree.
It is rare to find a Palestinian family that does not own an olive grove or at least a few trees, or at the very least, one or two olive trees in their garden. Zionist anthropologists (experts in studying human behavior) noted that the entire Palestinian People celebrates the olive harvest season as a grand popular carnival with profound educational, social, and cultural significance. This celebration exposed all the lies of the Zionist Movement, and they failed to prove their false claim that they are the rightful owners of this land and that the Palestinian People is an nonresident, transient population.
They decided to relocate a large number of ancient Palestinian olive trees, some of which are called "Roman" trees, meaning their age extends back to the Roman occupation. At dawn on Thursday, 19 June 1986, they uprooted a total of 3,285 mature olive trees, after cutting most of their branches, in preparation for transplanting them to Israeli settlements and cities. They used dozens of bulldozers, excavators, cranes, and large trucks for this purpose, carefully transporting the olive trunks, roots and all, to various locations in Tel Aviv, the Naqab settlements, neighborhoods in Yaffa, the Ma`ale Adumim settler colony east of Jerusalem, and settlements in the northern West Bank. This was clearly a pre-planned operation; the trees were moved in less than 24 hours and replanted within a few days.
On Tuesday, 24 June 1986, all the Zionist parties in the Knesset united and defeated the motion submitted by the Arab bloc to discuss the crime of uprooting the trees. On that day, Likud MK Meir Abidov sarcastically remarked, "The Arabs must have moved these ancient trees and planted them on state land to claim ownership to it." This is conclusive proof that he was speaking from his own mind. The perpetrator always harks back to his crime; he speaks of what they themselves did, and unjustly attributes it to farmers who possessed nothing but axes and shovels at the time. How could they possibly have moved thousands of ancient trees?
The Zionists’ uprooting of ancient olive trees from various Palestinian locations to plant them along roads, in squares, and at the entrances to settler colonies has become a recurring practice. Despite all this, the occupation has failed to assimilate the Palestinian culture of cherishing the olive. Olive trees and olive harvests remain a deep thorn in their side, a source of profound anguish in their fabricated narratives and in the hearts of their leaders, who dream of a permanent Zionist Jewish homeland in the region. The olive tree remains a Palestinian cultural symbol, affirming the Arab identity of this land.
At that point—and as evidenced by numerous instances of their subsequent actions—the Zionist leadership made the decision to empty Palestine of its olive trees, thus paving the way for the expulsion of its Palestinian inhabitants.
They instructed the settlers to launch a campaign to uproot Palestinian olive trees. This coincided with the escalation of settlement activity that followed the Oslo Accords and the assassination of their Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995–1996 and the years that followed.
Seeking to undermine the agreements and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, they targeted olive trees specifically, attempting to erase this cultural endowment that distinguishes Palestinians. The number of uprooted fruit-bearing trees increased, with a growing focus on olive trees, particularly older ones.
The annual average of olive trees attacked from the beginning of the occupation until 1993 was approximately 9,000. This figure rose after the settlement agreement, reaching an annual average of approximately 17,000 olive trees per year during the three decades following Oslo. The attacks reached their peak after the current settler government took office on the first day of 2023, with the annual average of attacks on olive trees rising to approximately 38,000 per year.!
This indicates the brutality of the settlers, their leaders, and their political parties against any peace process, coexistence, or even a simple settlement between Palestinians and Israelis. This provides conclusive evidence that the occupation aims to uproot Palestinians from their land. This is evident in the frenzied proliferation of pastoral settlement outposts over the past five years, with more than 240 outposts spreading haphazardly across the land without any deterrent.
The Israeli army protects these outposts and prevents Palestinians from defending their rights and themselves against them. Even lands that occasionally escape settler attacks are often seized by the settlers, who prevent their owners from accessing them to tend to their land or harvest their crops. Furthermore, the ferocity of settler attacks on olive pickers has transformed the olive harvest season from a joyous celebration of the sacred oil into a season of pain and suffering.
The olive tree has become the last remaining link, brimming with Palestinian belonging to this land stained with the blood of its Palestinian martyrs. It continues to clearly represent the cultural identity of this steadfast people. The challenge of occupation, which seeks to swallow the land and replace its rightful owners with themselves, now confronts every Palestinian. The conflict is characterized by the colonizer counterfeiting land, identity, and history. Those who remain silent today will weep tears of blood tomorrow.
Jamal Talab al-Amleh is Advisor to Land Research Center
Image: The olive tree as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian People, commemorated each year on 29 November. Source: HLRN file.
