Of olive and pine: Green washing minds
Reflections on ecology, native lands and settlements
“Let’s talk about plants baby, let’s talk about you and me, let’s about all the good things and the bad things that maybe be, let’s talk about s….”1
Let’s keep talking till it’s not possible to get our voices across because of complete control of digital media outlets—Or, let’s talk our way through the wires, finding the glitch and passing through – not seamlessly, for that would mean we are not effective. Change causes ripples and we need to stir the swamp.
A little pebble bounces on the surface and creates circles within circles within circles within within…
Cross safely child, and joyously, planting a seed here and there. It may grow into a tree. Ah, what the heck, let’s make it an olive tree. Zaytoun. And let’s not forget the pine that came to replace her – but alas, weather conditions were not always suitable.
[Listen to the article narrated.]
Plants:
Native plants and non-native plants. Invasive plants, medicinal plants, exotic plants, weeds… prohibited plants, complimentary plants, uprooted plants, imported plants, posphorized plants, pesticized plants… and dead ones. Genetically modified plants, surviving everything, bearing no seed. As if we know better than the creator.
Let’s talk about
Native plants & non-native plants
Is a non-native always bad?
It depends. How did it get there, and when? Who introduced it and why? What are its effects? Has it seamlessly integrated or has it become invasive?
Under normal conditions, a plant does best in its native land—but conditions are not normal, neither above the ground nor underneath it. The imbalance is everywhere and all forms of life are suffering. We are all aliens and alienated. Natives of the land, ordained by god, and damned. Sometimes we need to replant ourselves- in a pot if need be.
Some non-natives might do pretty good in foreign ground (and even be useful, attracting pollinators, fixing the soil…) It just takes more work to harmonise with the environment, costs more energy and might be harmful to the plant itself or the ecosystem – in the short or long term.
Of mice and men
When exotic or foreign entities appear in a locale, it generates either curiosity or fear (children lean to the former till they’re corrupted by socialisation.) Fear is the name of the game. The current program benefits from a nervous condition of fight or flight or freeze (instead of make love and dance with me – or let’s sit together in silence.) Fear can make people accept anything and do anything. Fear of the unknown becomes an existential threat. The great fear of death – of being killed – by you - by me - The sworn enemy.
In plants, this existential threat finds expression in the production of large amounts of seeds. This applies to humans too. Thus, Gazans have high fertility rates, and the settlers are popping babies like rabbits. Meanwhile, women in Scandinavia struggle with infertility (Geoff Lawtin, lecture- Jordan valley 2023 - in my words.)
I think of experimental mice. They reproduce quickly and are deemed disposable. Useful when there’s need for the many experiments that will kill or maim them. I think of disposable humans (or non-human as they have been described) useful when in need of human targets. A good market for weapons. A good source of dark entertainment.
When a strange fruit appears, the first reasonable reaction is to remove it, so it does not spread. It might not be a real threat, but shoot first and ask question later. Better safe than sorry. Big pharma hurries to the rescue. Get rid of the benign tumor, make space for the real one to take its place. Now, apply this to refugees. And now… to settlements.
“You shall know them by their fruits.”
(Matehew 7:16)
How is the non-native affecting the environment as a whole? Does it enhance diversity or limit it? If the former, keep it; if the latter, then it should go- ideally of its own accord.
A fig tree grows outside my window – occupying a patch of grass that was not planted before - in this cold and wet climate of the low lands. It has produced such abundance of fruit this summer, the whole neighborhood got a taste. The olive tree in my garden has produced olives this year. They are only a shriveled handful, but they have managed to adapt.
Is that good or bad … They are not native – what are the long term effects?
At this moment, they seem harmless … reminding me of home. Warm. Nourishing.
It’s warmer in this country now than a hundred years ago. Maybe in a few hundred years it will be like the Mediterranean. Good or bad? Change is inevitable. We once had an ice age!
I’d imagine that if a plant is in a good a place, the place is good for that plant. If the plant is not suitable, it will struggle to survive. It might succeed for a while, it might even spread like a cancer, but eventually it will deplete itself or the ecosystem that sustains it- or rather cannot sustain it. In its native environment, a plant is kept in check by other organisms in its ecosystem – if we spare them (think Koalas and Eucalyptus.) When there’s no natural predator, it might go wild and threaten existing life (think Eucalyptus in California, it smells great but is highly combustible and nothing grows underneath.)
I think of the poor kussa seed that I (accidently) brought back from Jericho to the Netherlands. Not used to this excess of rain, what should have become a little light green (Persian) squash drank itself from 200 grams into 2 kilograms at arms-length almost overnight. Bigger is not better, mind you. It was spongy and had less taste. But it made a good soup nonetheless.2
Selection. Discernment.
Choosing the right-full plants for the garden of Evil… Eden
Let’s talk about pine
European pine is fast growing. Smells nice. Has its advantages. It is not native to the holy land, but started making its appearance with the Balfour agreement, and spread widely over the years thanks to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) which bought land and grew forests, 85% of them are non-indigenous. They simultaneously implanted the holy land in the hearts of Jewish people worldwide, and gave zionism a green-image.
LISTEN to The olive and pine, a wonderful podcast by Outside/In, which tells the story of a young Jewish woman’s reflections and discoveries about the pine tree carrying her name in Israel3.
Branding
The JNF’s campaign was/is brilliantly designed, down to the details of the Blue Box they used to collect donations 120 years ago and until today. The first blue boxes were simply decorated with a white six pointed star. The hexagram is a symbol much older than Judaism or the State of Israel. It represents the masculine and feminine interlocked; above and below in perfect harmony. The colour white: Purity. Blue: Water - life. White & blue + the six pointed star = The flag of what will become. Thanks to powerful advertisement, people believed that their blue box donations were contributing to greening barren land, without people to cultivate it.
“A land without a people for a people without a land.”
Hé, barren lands! Lands that were in fact abundant with citrus, olive, hawthorn, oak and carob… sage and thyme. Small villages living in harmony with nature. Not empty, but emptied.
Green washing
More than 90% of Israeli forests were planted after 1948 -most of which are evergreen non-native pine. Not all pine is innocent. Take the Birya Forest for example, hailed by the KKL-JNF as “the largest planted forest in the Galilee” covering 20 sq. km, promising “Magic and Mysticism” with a a fortress in the middle that “symbolises the determination of the Jewish people to inhabit their land.” They do not mention the fact that this forest covers the remains of six ethnically cleansed villages of Dishon, Alma, Amqa, Ayn al-Zaytun, Qaddita, and Biriyya. (READ: Oppressive pines: Uprooting Israeli green colonialism and implanting Palestinian A’wna, by Ghada Sasa ,2022 // Or- if you’re looking for a shorter read: Of olive groves and pine trees: the story of Palestine, by Ayesha Malik, 2023.)4
I guess calling the Birya forest magical is not a lie, for it conceals what is there; charms another tale , just like an invisibility cloak.
To the colonisers, these forest must be a romantic concept. The pine gives a cool breeze in the heat of summer. It reminds them of home. It is planted by their state and represents them. However the pine trees are highly combustible, resulting in forest fires, that are conveniently blamed on Palestinians. (READ: Israeli Forests on fire: The political history of pine trees in Palestine, by Léopold Lambert, 2016)
While the JNF claims various environmental benefits to their pine forestation efforts: “holding back the desert, recharging soils with moisture, preventing floods… and fighting climate change by capturing carbon dioxide from the air… [however] according to some Israeli geologists, the collateral damage has been too great… obliterating grasslands that contain rare endemic species [and causing] more warming than cooling.” (READ: In Israel, Questions Are Raised about a Forest that Rises from the Desert, by Fred Pearce, 2019)
This is not to mention the constant need for irrigation to sustain these trees - which given the dryness of the region is disastrous to all other forms of life. Unsustainable!
Around 250 million trees have been planted by the JNF. Meanwhile, since 1967 alone, more than 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted or destroyed by Israel- some estimate it as a million olive trees already.
The war on Zaytoun
The olive tree has always been a symbol for the Palestinian people, its steadfastness and resilience, its deep rootedness. It was/is a major crop that sustains the fellaheen.
Is this what triggers the vengeance of Settlers upon the Palestinians, especially during the olive harvest. Is it what justifies vandalising the olive trees themselves?
Settler violence is only getting worse, especially now that they’re supported, protected and armed by the government, with Israeli political figures like Yossi Dagan succeeding in gaining the support of US and European leaders (Volkskrant 7/12/2024). There is plenty of footage on-line demonstrating settler aggression, but they too are victims… brainwashed into assaulting Palestinians as if possessed, becoming monsters themselves. But that is not their true nature - it cannot be.
(Watch: The Settlers: Inside the Jewish Settlements.)
The real demon is fear
The settlers (and the Israeli society as a whole) live in a constant state of existential fear (as do the Palestinians.) What makes the Palestinians resilient is their generations-long connection to the land. What makes the settlers strong and enduring (surpassing the secularists) is their complete belief that they are doing the work of G-d. Some have been given incentives ofcourse, to live gratis at the line of fire, in fancy modern houses with swimming pools. The more extreme settler groups however are living in outposts - tin shacks or trailers – totally illegal within enemy grounds, in what they see is their rightful Judea. At some point, there were 21 illegal settlements in Gaza. They were dismantled in 2005, making the current war feel like their revenge.
I wonder … how are the settlers adapting physically? Their complexions are light, their digestive system different – their needs of food and temperature are other. It’s not their climate.
As a middle eastern person living in a cold and wet foreign country, my body suffers many ailments: from winter fingers, to pains in the joints, to slow digestion - not to mention depression. To remain healthy is a full time job, from Ayurvedic herbs and tea concoctions, to saunas, cold dips and visualisation, to trying to channel the spirit of my grandmother Fatima who was a healer in Silwan. I’ve managed to survive, but boy it costs so much energy. So why stay?
“We the Palestinians can never go back home, so we make our home wherever we go,” my father used to say.
How is the pine adapting?
“Israeli pine trees are dying of thirst” (Jewish Journal, 2020) Without extensive irrigation, they would cease to exist. Not only are they not equipped for the heat, but the fact that they constitute a monoculture makes them susceptible to disease.
Simple rule:
Diversity = life * Monoculture = disease—>death.
Why can’t we realise it’s the same for human beings?
I’ve heard about an olive tree that grew back through a dead pine. I tried to find a photo but could not. Yet I believe it. A Zaytoun is stubborn enough to do that. She is of that land, and knows every sand corral and how to grow between stones.
O Olive, growing slowly, winding upon herself. The harvest of her olives was once called a ‘Canaanite wedding.’ Now it’s more like a blood wedding. O Zaytoun, her stories are many and multi-layered— but this post is getting too long.5
Thus, to end:
What should we do about the pine - and the olive?
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from tending a little forest, is the need to stop and halt all activity when a situation occurs, taking everything into account, and searching for the option that causes the least harm and promotes health, diversity and life.
It makes no sense to go on a rampage to get rid of the pine trees. Removing trees is seldom wise (unless they’re sick.) The pine needles have already increased the acidity of the soil, it is no longer suitable for planting crops as it used to be. Of course we can re-generate soil, but we cannot go back to how it was. Perhaps we can stop watering the pine and let nature take its course. We might consider eventually removing some of the trees for timber and planting new-indigenous specie betweens… but halt - what actions can we do now?
One thing is certain, planting more pine trees needs to stop. As for the olive trees, vandalising and killing them must stop. But let’s also not plant more. It’s been observed that extensive olive cultivation leads to soil erosion and depletion (source). Too much of a good thing is not good.
We have a situation at hand.
Native olives and non-native pines.
Can they co-exist and be mutually beneficial?
I don’t know, but I’d like to believe so. In the plot in front of my house (which used to be nothing but a dead-green-lawn) the olive that bore fruit this year stands next to a pine. Both were planted at the same time seven years ago. The native pine has grown three times its original height and carries healthy cones. The Mediterranean olive grew slow as it should and produced some olives. Can they co-exist and thrive or is it just a matter of time before one tries to kill the other?
Salt-N-Pepa (1991 song) intruded on my mind…
Remind me to tell you one day about the lady bug that hitched a ride on my vest from the Netherlands to Jericho. Perhaps the story will come under a new tab for Fables or subscribers - once I activate that. Requests?
I can’t recommend this podcast enough. I came upon it while searching for a photo of an olive tree growing out of a pine. If I had known about this podcast (and the other articles I came upon writing this) I would not have chosen an almost similar title- but I’ve decided to keep my title - adding it to the corpus.
Once I started searching, the amount of information on this topic blew me away. How can so few people know about this? Another source worth reading- given that this has become not only a place to write but to also store references: The Palestinian Environment Under Israeli Colonization, by Greg Harman (2021)
Also: The Palestinian Environment Under Israeli Colonization, by Greg Harman. And there are many many more.
I have to mention one recent play on the beloved olive theme which stayed with me: “Zaytoun: The Whore of Canaan.” a solo performance by - ehem- Lana Nasser with musical accompaniment by Antonio Alemanno. Keep an eye out for it in 2025 - maybe somewhere near you. Feel free to invite me .. I mean her… uh - them.