Trees Growing in Palestine

The first Arab-Israel War, now renamed ‘Palestinian-Israeli’ conflict, was 1947. This means most of us alive today conceptualize life where par for the course is this war, pre-existing and ongoing. The problem with that, apart from the atrocities of war, is when something or somewhere exists in our mind as having always been in a damaged, dysfunctional or in dilapidated state, it’s harder to imagine whole what’s long been broken. A reality different to what you’ve been conditioned to associate with it is often forgotten.

I wanted to visualize Palestine differently, its textures not an explosion of shrapnel or concrete rubble and found it in this article by Atlas Obscura about Salah Abu Ali, a man who watches over one of the world’s oldest olive trees and the place it has in the hearts of those who know about this tree, symbolic of pre-occupied Palestine.

Al Badawai, one of the world’s oldest olive trees, between 3500-5000 years old

Al Badawai, one of the world’s oldest olive trees, between 3500-5000 years old

It starts:

SALAH ABU ALI HAS THREE children. But he has another son here, he says, pointing towards the gnarled trunk of the Al Badawi tree. Weathered and ancient, it looks more like an oak than an olive tree, with muscular stalks and a cavernous trunk. Sensing confusion, Ali walks to the tree. He kneels below the branches and gently caresses a small sapling that’s sprouted near the base. He says he found it on the day his last son was born.

Link to article here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/world-oldest-olive-trees

I also found a site of an arborteum Jathour Mashjar, an arboretum in Palestine showing their native foliage, plants and blooms. I very much relate to plants and visualized walking about those in the photo. Also saw photos of an event they hosted in 2015 for kids to study the night sky. Not very many photos but they seem to have enjoyed it.


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They Aren’t You

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It Takes Years