Личная информация
- Страна местожительства: Anguilla
Информация
Driven from the historic town of Jaffa by the Israeli invasion of 1948, then fleeing with her family to Jordan and finally France, Palestinian peace activist Lena Saleh, is now at the forefront of a campaign to support her people in an attempt to replant some of the 12 million olive trees that have been cut down by the occupying forces of Israel.
"Olive trees have become a casualty of war," says Lena, and though expansion of Israeli settlements, access roads and the "security fence" are continuing to uproot groves of olive trees that have sustained Palestinian life for thousands of years, "the people of Palestine will keep their roots."
Olive trees have been a symbol of the Palestinian people, culture, heritage and identity since biblical times. "To pass on an olive branch is to pass on peace," says Lena, reminding us that an olive branch is used in the United Nations logo as a representation of peace. But more than just a symbol, olive trees are vital to the existence and livelihood of Palestinians, with over 51 percent of the cultivated land in the Occupied Territories planted with olive trees. Apart from the harvest of the olives and the extraction of the oil, used nutritiously in cooking, foods, or in natural soap, the seeds can also be pressed into a fuel. Traditionally the harvest months of October and November are a celebration, but with attacks from settlers and Israeli forces common, along with humiliating encounters at checkpoints to simply gain access to the olive groves, it is a dangerous and difficult time to be a olive farmer.
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