The olive picking season is starting, and with it the settlers' harrasments of olive farmers in the West Bank, closed gates in the fences separating the farmers from the trees, impossible permits' system separating the farmers from farming, the lost olives of tens of thousands of uprooted trees and confiscated land due to the construction of the wall, and on top of it all, thousands of stolen trees which appeared as decoration in city squares all around Israel during the last 4 years.Following reports that the army will bar the access of some leftist activists from joining the olive picking in the West Bank; the mysterious appearance of mature olive trees in the main Tel Aviv square, named after Rabin; and my recent move to a place near Rabin Square...
We went out today, Succoth eve, to Rabin Square... where there was the annual succoth fair selling some traditional Jewish ritualistic items among the olive trees...
Samira brought the big stick, Gamila Biso brought the cloth, the trees provided large green ripe olives, all covered with city grime and soot...
Then we stopped for a bit and listened to the raging grannies in an olive medley...
Olive picking is not something often seen in the middle of the city. People around and in the fair were curious, confused, many thought it was a holiday activity for the kids... our flyer discussed the olive picking in the West Bank, and included a poem by a fabulous poet - Agi Mishol - about those same trees that appeared in Israeli cities, and about their very recent history...Gamila Biso (from the Olive Tree Movement) - in pink - and Arik Asherman (from Rabbis for Human Rights) spoke about the solidarity campaign in the olive picking season in the West Bank.
We all talked with people there, inviting them to join the campaign... we got the strangest reactions:
We all talked with people there, inviting them to join the campaign... we got the strangest reactions: one orthodox man said that picking olives that are "not ready for eating" is against halachic law (we tried telling him that olives are never ready for eating off the tree... and rabbi Asherman tried telling him the he is "a real Rabbi").
a second man I spoke to took a real interest in my explanation about olives as a source of income and not just decoration, but when he glanced at our flier he exclamed "but you are talking about the Palestinians, and everybody knows that they uproot their own trees". his idea was that it was all done to blame the jews.
A third man (all men, I wonder why) gave us a lecture about how the Arabs burnt all those trees in the north of Israel (during the last war) and these are the trees we should care about...
The police came and went and came and went, they tried telling us we do not have a permit, we cannot put up signs... but they really could not find anything illegal with picking fruit off a public tree. we promised to clean up and so we did...
In the end, a few buckets of beat-up olives were packed into a car going to Jayyous in the West Bank, a Palestinian village whose trees were stolen. Maybe people there will find some use for them as decoration in the village square...
We started at 11am, and it was already 1pm, and time for the weekly Women in Black vigil, this time, under the olive trees in Rabin Square.
The police came and went and came and went, they tried telling us we do not have a permit, we cannot put up signs... but they really could not find anything illegal with picking fruit off a public tree. we promised to clean up and so we did...
In the end, a few buckets of beat-up olives were packed into a car going to Jayyous in the West Bank, a Palestinian village whose trees were stolen. Maybe people there will find some use for them as decoration in the village square...
We started at 11am, and it was already 1pm, and time for the weekly Women in Black vigil, this time, under the olive trees in Rabin Square.
(pictures: Dalit Baum and Raafat Hatab)
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