- How does one properly react to the news of the deliberate
destruction of ancient olive trees in the disputed areas of Palestine?
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- Settlers Destroy Hundreds of Olive Trees on Palestinian
Farm Land
- Agence France-Presse November 5, 2003
- http://www.palestinemonitor.org/settlements/settlers_destroy_farm_land.htm
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- Palestinians Die For Their Land And Olive Trees
- http://www.mediamonitors.net/ramzy1.html
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- The olive tree is a symbol of peace. The ancient Greeks
believed that the fruit was of divine origin, and for hundreds of years,
it has had perhaps the most profound impact on the life of the Palestinian
people. With its many different products, from olives, to oil, to soaps
and woods, this tree is a major underpinning of the cultural, social, religious
and economic life of the region, contributing heavily to the Palestinian
economy.
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- It was perhaps inevitable that the Israeli settlers would
eventually begin cutting down the olive trees in order to force the Palestinian
to abandon his land. It is the equivalent of poisoning a well, or killing
farm animals, or burning down houses. If the thing your life depends on
is destroyed, then, your life is destroyed.
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- Unfortunately, those settlers whose claim to this disputed
land is allegedly based on the Bible, and who destroy this sacred tree,
have not taken the time to study the Torah. In the Book of Deuteronomy
20.19, we find these instructions:
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- "When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting
against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to
them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees
of the field people, that you should besiege them? However, you may cut
down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege
works until the city at war with you falls."
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- How clear is that? Do not cut down the trees, especially
the fruit-bearing trees. Obviously, the olive trees are not being cut down
to build "siege works", and even for this purpose are they also
off limits. So what gives? A simple act of hate, aimed at inflicting additional
pain and injury on the Palestinians?
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- About a year ago, a cypress tree outside our home had
to be cut down. This tree was at least 200 years old, a beautiful, majestic
tree, a giant, green lingam thrusting powerfully into the sky. However,
its roots were beginning to damage the foundation of the house. In fact,
you could actually see where one of its roots was beginning to lift up
the floor in the living room. The decision to cut down this innocent cypress
was not lightly made. For more than half my life, I have lived as a strict
vegetarian, eating a diet that was often mostly vegan. I try to avoid,
as much as possible, participating in the killing of any living thing.
The vegetables, in addition to whatever simple things we may eat, are taken
with the utmost reverence, knowing that to maintain our lives, we had to
kill some plants. Spiders and other unwanted guests are carefully captured
and put outside to find a new home. I am one of those persons who have
accepted that the symptoms of life indicate the presence of the living
force within-the soul, regardless of how "primitive" that life
form may be. I had several "talks" with the cypress before he
was brought down, and I keep a small piece of his wood to remind me of
the frailty and sacredness of all life.
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- I confess that I was greatly pained to learn of the deliberate
hacking down of so many olive trees-in the Holy Land, no less-that would
so bountifully bless anyone who cared enough to tend them and harvest their
fruits.
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- Recently, I was reminded of the wisdom of Solomon, and,
reflecting on one incident recorded in the Book of 1 Kings, I was shown
a way to understand what I was seeing.
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- In this remarkable story, told in verses 16-28 of Chapter
3, two women appeared before King Solomon. They had lived together, had
been pregnant and had recently delivered each a baby. One of the babies
had died. Now, both women claimed that the surviving baby was hers, and
that the dead baby belonged to the other.
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- In his great wisdom, Solomon asked that a sword be brought,
that the baby be divided in two, and that one half be given to each of
the women. Upon hearing this edict, one of the women declared, "Let
it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it."
- "Then spake the woman whose the living child was
unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my
lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it."
- "Then the king answered and said, Give her the living
child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof."
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- Solomon knew that the real mother would never be able
to tolerate seeing her son cut up. She would prefer to give him up voluntarily
so that he would live, rather than see him killed. However, not so the
other woman. Since the baby was not hers, she would prefer that no one
have him and that he be killed.
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- Reflecting on this story helped me to understand that
the plight of the olive trees meant that it is really the Palestinian who
belongs to this land, and the land to him. No Palestinian would cut down
an olive tree. It is his life and he is too intimately bound up with the
olive trees to chop them down in so shameless a manner. In contrast, Jewish
settlers arriving from Russia and America, many of whom probably never
saw an olive tree before arriving in Israel, cannot possibly understand
the significance of this tree, the relationship between the tree and the
land, and the relationship that exists between the tree, the land and the
real people of the land. Only the real people of the land could understand
these things.
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- In similar fashion, the life of the Red Indian of North
America depended on the multitude of wild buffalo that roamed the plains.
He took only what he needed for his survival. However, the newly minted
cowboys would shoot the buffalo from the windows of their passing train
and leave them rotting on the plain. By killing off the buffalo, he destroyed
the Indian. The land came with the buffalo. The buffalo came with the land.
The Indian understood this and respected and protected this relationship
for hundreds, if not thousands of years. He could not love and worship
the land without loving the buffalo, nor could he love the buffalo without
worshiping the land that gave it. All three were inextricably bound up.
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- If King Solomon were alive today, and the two warring
camps appeared before him, each claiming ownership of the land of Palestine,
he might experience a momentary feeling of deja-vu, and would remember
the two women with the baby, whom he judged so many years ago. This time,
he would demand that, instead of a sword, axes be brought, and he would
order that all of the olive trees of Palestine be cut down.
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- "Yes, O King." One party would say. "Let
all the trees be cut down, so that they be neither ours, nor theirs."
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- "No, my Lord." The other party would reply.
"Let them have the land and all the trees on it. Only, please do not
cut down the trees. Let them have the trees and all the land that goes
with them. But in no wise, cut them down."
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- Smiling knowingly, the wise Solomon would say, "Give
the land to the party that cherishes the olive trees, for the trees come
with the land, and the land comes with the trees. They are the rightful
owners."
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