Olive cultivation in Palestine

[3] The olive tree is seen by many Palestinians as being a symbol of nationality and connection to the land,[4] particularly due to their slow growth and longevity.

The destruction of Palestinian olive trees has become a feature of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with regular reports of damage by Israeli settlers.

In the New Testament, the Mount of Olives has an important role and the anointing with oil is part of Christian[8] and Islamic religious practice.

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.

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.

After the Israel Defense Forces defeated the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1982 Lebanon War, the olive became a symbol for Palestinian identity.

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.

[26]Arafat's remarks on the olive branch still influence literature today in works such as Raja Shehadeh's "Diary of an Internal Exile: Three Entries" in which she writes about her struggles as a resident of the West Bank.

"[27] 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.

[31] The United Nations reported that by 2013, 11,000 olive trees owned by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank had been damaged or destroyed.

[32][33] Washington Post, October 2014: "More than 80,000 Palestinian farmers derive a substantial portion of their annual income from olives.

[36] In 2017 laborers began uprooting olive trees to build a bypass road near Azzun and Nabi Ilyas.

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.