

Olive tree, said to be several hundred years old, transplanted to Israeli settlement

A week or so back I toured the sprawling Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim with Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. And he pointed out several ancient olive trees that he said had been taken by Israelis from Palestinian lands and transplanted to this new “Israeli” city inside occupied Palestine.

In this video below, Halper points out several olive trees, some over 400 years, that he believes were stolen from Palestinians. The trees would never grow here ordinarily. And he says that in other cases Israeli soldiers who have removed the trees from Palestinian villages have sold the trees to the nouveau riche in north Tel Aviv.

These trees were in Palestinian families for 400 years, Halper says, and provided generations with sustenance. Their removal and transplanting are part of the “banal” humiliation of Palestinians.