I dream of a home with a mango tree. Where there is patience and several different types of teas. I dream of a place that sustains. A place where giving is receiving and waves of gratitude wash over our pain. I dream of morning windows letting in another chance. Of tender hands softening rough edges with gentleness, and laughter painting the walls with dance. I dream of a hiding place where we find each other. Where our silent eyes meet and for once are able to say, you know me. You know me.
The Middle East never had a Jew problem. It’s Europe that had a Jew problem. Long before the birth of I*rael, Jews were cohabitating with Muslims, Christians in the middle East. The “antisemitism” word was born solely because of the mistreatment of Jews in Europe, not in the middle East. But now, Europe suddenly wants to act otherwise , as if the zionist state wasn’t born solely for the reason to keep Jews out of Europe cause they had “too many Jews in Europe” after WW2. The very existence of I*rael is antisemitic and promotes colonisation. Before 1948, there were Muslims, Jews, Christians living in Palestine together without any conflict. In 1948, people from EACH religion were murdered , not just Muslims. They were forced out of their homes by the zionists. And it’s still going on. People of Palestine are still facing the oppression and genocide years after the nakba and western government bodies playing an active role behind it.
Some of the Olive trees that currently still grow and bear fruit in occupied Palestine are thousands of years old.
This olive tree is nearly 5000 years old and has witnessed more war and bloodshed than any of us. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, at the edge of Jerusalem, trees still grow that were there when Jesus wept.
[ID: collection of images and quotes about olive trees.
1: Van Gogh’s painting “Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun”, depicting a grove of green-leaved olive trees under a yellow sky.
2: text: “If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears.”
3: two stills from a video showing a person in a white shirt, raising their hands in distress next to an olive tree whose trunk is on fire. Caption: “The olive trees! What did the olive trees do? This olive tree that prays to God, what did it do?”
4: text: “A Palestinian would never destroy a healthy olive tree. This reality clarifies the so-called complexities of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Who is Indigenous, Jews or Palestinians? A Palestinian would never destroy a healthy olive tree. Who is the aggressor? A Palestinian would never destroy a healthy olive tree. Who has a deep history on the land? A Palestinian would never destroy a healthy olive tree. Who wrecks the environment with irresponsible human settlement? A Palestinian would never destroy a healthy olive tree.”
5: photo of a person’s wrinkled brown hands grasping the dangling branch of an olive tree.
6: photo of a giant olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane. A person stands on a footpath below the tree, dwarfed under its branches.
7: tweet by “ein-sofist” @aesthetikeit that says, “the talmud references the destruction of olive trees as a symbol for abject grief”.
8: text: “My father remembered / his twelve olive trees / every day for ten years. / He remembered the peasant saying / to the olive tree Had she felt for his toil, / she’d yield not olives, but tears, / and the tree answering: / ‘Tears you have enough; I give you oil / to light your lamps, to nourish, and to heal.'”
9: text: “Under the olive trees, they raised their arms—Hear us! We have pain on earth!” End ID]
Regretfully, I had to leave all my books behind. I couldn’t bear to make the choice between my beloveds, so I left them all.
Give them back. Give us back our beds. Give us back our offices. And give us back our books.
Nabil S., from “It Was All Songs: A Letter From Gaza” translated from the Arabic by Sarah Aziza, published in Mizna on February 12th, 2024. You can read the entire essay here.
“Another death escaping moment. Another place we try to get access to wifi from… I usually open the connection in this place..
Today, I went to meet someone elsewhere.. And hour later, I heard an airtsrike, and later, I knew it was the place we got some connection from… This has been deeply thoughtful- the number of times we’ve escaped literal death moments..
A couple martyred and plenty of injuries this morning where people access the internet to call family and check the news..
No place in Gaza is safe and now it’s more frightening getting connection … feeling it might be our last moments of life. This has to end! This is a crime! This can’t keep going on…
We are being fought in every way you can think of!?
I used to say war, then said it’s bigger like ethnic cleansing then thought it’s a genocide worse than the Holocaust.
This is much worse.. This has no definition to it..
This killed us into pieces without being dead.”
From Ahmed (“Prince”) Kouta’s Instagram story. He is a Palestinian-Canadian in Gaza who visited to finalize and defend his masters in the medical field. His entire life has been flipped upside down.
