During the last few years, Palestinian olive trees — a universal symbol of life and peace - have been systematically destroyed by Israeli settlers. "It has reached a crescendo.
What might look like ad hoc violence is actually a tool the settlers are using to push back Palestinian farmers from their own land," stated in the past a spokeswoman for Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization monitoring incidents in the West Bank.
The tree and its oil have a special significance throughout the Middle East. The olive tree is an essential aspect of Palestinian culture, heritage and identity, and has been mentioned in the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Torah. Many families depend on the olive trees for their livelihood.
Olive oil is a key product of the Palestinian national economy, and olive production is the main product in terms of total agricultural production, making up 25% of the total agricultural production in the West Bank. Palestinians plant around 10,000 new olive trees in the West Bank every year. Most of the new plants are from the oil-producing variety. Olive oil is the second major export item in Palestine.
For the last forty years, over a million of olive trees and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been destroyed in Palestinian lands. The Israel Defense Forces have been accused of uprooting olive trees to facilitate the building of settlements, expand roads and build infrastructure. The uprooting of centuries-old olive trees has caused tremendous losses to farmers and their families. At the same time, restrictions to harvesting have come through curfews, security closures and attacks by settlers.
Comment: "Bees are key indicators of what is happening in the environment."
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