Ali's First Blog.

From Social Justice Report.

Since the first Diaspora, all the way through King Saladin’s victory over the Crusaders in the tenth century, and until the British Mandate in 1948, Arabs in the Palestine area had been cultivating and harvesting agricultural products including olives, peacefully.

Then, in 1948, Israeli settlements were being established right and left, pushing the Palestinian farmers farther out and away from their farms. To this day, Israeli settlement roads are dividing villages. According to one man we interviewed about his trip to Palestine and Israel, Otto René Peréz-Arana, Palestinians risk their lives if they even step within 100 yards of these settlement roads. And, according to Israeli law, it is illegal for a Palestinian to use, or even step on the Israeli settlement roads, even if the roads sit in the middle of a farming village. After researching, talking to some people who’ve visited the region and grasping an understanding of the situation, it became clear that the Palestinians were oppressed and controlled against humanitarian norms through their agriculture. And, Olive trees alone, that account for 38.2% of the total fruit trees production income in Palestine. It is close to the biggest exported product in Palestine. Alone, it accounts for about 5% of Palestine’s entire Gross Domestic Product. The Olive tree does not solely generate olive oil, Palestinian farmers also produce high quality olive oil soap and olive wood and much more. An economically weaker Palestine makes it much easier for a stronger, more well-funded Israeli government to take even more land from the Palestinians.
It is a known fact that violence and aggression thrive in impoverishment. Without a stable economy, Palestinians will continue to express aggression towards the wealthier, more powerful Israeli government. And, without the cultivation of olives, they will have almost nothing else to rely on. Recently, the Israeli government has been working on their latest form of apartheid, the “wall.” The wall is project that will result in a cement wall border to separate Israel and the land Israel has granted Palestine. It is twice the size of the Berlin Wall, standing twenty-five feet high. With 90 miles already built, it cuts right through Jerusalem (“City of Peace”), and is supposed to be 400 miles once completed. Also, once built, it will divide al-Quds University, which is the primary Palestinian school of higher learning in Jerusalem. But, probably the most significant effect of the wall is the fact that it has already uprooted 10,320 olive trees. This, to the Palestinians, means that they will not be able to sell their olive products and be able to make ends meet. With 20% of Palestinian farmers relying on olive trees alone, the Israeli destruction of olive trees threatens to take what little the Palestinians have left and disintegrate the already weak economic structure. The small Palestinian economy is now reliant on the production of olive tree products, but simply supporting the farmers in Palestine will not alleviate the entire economic burden that sits on them. Sitting in San Francisco, that may be our only option.