By Hugh Joseph
hughjoseph@aol.com12-8-4
How does one properly react to the news of the deliberate destruction
of ancient olive trees in the disputed areas of Palestine?
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/settlements/settlers_destroy_farm_land.htm
Palestinians Die For Their Land And Olive Trees
http://www.mediamonitors.net/ramzy1.html
The olive tree is a symbol of peace.
The ancient Greeks believed that the fruit was of divine origin, and for hundreds of years, it has had perhaps the most profound impact on the life of the Palestinian people. With its many different products, from olives, to oil, to soaps and woods, this tree is a major underpinning of the cultural, social, religious and economic life of the region, contributing heavily to the Palestinian economy.
It was perhaps inevitable that the Israeli settlers would eventually begin cutting down the olive trees in order to force the Palestinian to abandon his land. It is the equivalent of poisoning a well, or killing farm animals, or burning down houses. If the thing your life depends on is destroyed, then, your life is destroyed.
Unfortunately, those settlers whose claim to this disputed land is allegedly based on the Bible, and who destroy this sacred tree, have not taken the time to study the Torah.
In the Book of Deuteronomy 20.19, we find these instructions:
"When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls."
How clear is that? Do not cut down the trees, especially the fruit-bearing trees. Obviously, the olive trees are not being cut down to build "siege works", and even for this purpose are they also off limits. So what gives? A simple act of hate, aimed at inflicting additional pain and injury on the Palestinians?
I confess that I was greatly pained to learn of the deliberate hacking down of so many olive trees-in the Holy Land, no less-that would so bountifully bless anyone who cared enough to tend them and harvest their fruits.
Recently, I was reminded of the wisdom of Solomon, and, reflecting on one incident recorded in the Book of 1 Kings, I was shown a way to understand what I was seeing.
In this remarkable story, told in verses 16-28 of Chapter 3, two women appeared before King Solomon. They had lived together, had been pregnant and had recently delivered each a baby. One of the babies had died. Now, both women claimed that the surviving baby was hers, and that the dead baby belonged to the other.
In his great wisdom, Solomon asked that a sword be brought, that the baby be divided in two, and that one half be given to each of the women. Upon hearing this edict, one of the women declared, "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it."
"Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it."
"Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof."
Solomon knew that the real mother would never be able to tolerate seeing her son cut up. She would prefer to give him up voluntarily so that he would live, rather than see him killed. However, not so the other woman. Since the baby was not hers, she would prefer that no one have him and that he be killed.
Reflecting on this story helped me to understand that the plight of the olive trees meant that it is really the Palestinian who belongs to this land, and the land to him.
No Palestinian would cut down an olive tree. It is his life and he is too intimately bound up with the olive trees to chop them down in so shameless a manner. In contrast, Jewish settlers arriving from Russia and America, many of whom probably never saw an olive tree before arriving in Israel, cannot possibly understand the significance of this tree, the relationship between the tree and the land, and the relationship that exists between the tree, the land and the real people of the land. Only the real people of the land could understand these things.
In similar fashion, the life of the Red Indian of North America depended on the multitude of wild buffalo that roamed the plains. He took only what he needed for his survival. However, the newly minted cowboys would shoot the buffalo from the windows of their passing train and leave them rotting on the plain. By killing off the buffalo, he destroyed the Indian. The land came with the buffalo. The buffalo came with the land. The Indian understood this and respected and protected this relationship for hundreds, if not thousands of years. He could not love and worship the land without loving the buffalo, nor could he love the buffalo without worshiping the land that gave it. All three were inextricably bound up.
If King Solomon were alive today, and the two warring camps appeared before him, each claiming ownership of the land of Palestine, he might experience a momentary feeling of deja-vu, and would remember the two women with the baby, whom he judged so many years ago. This time, he would demand that, instead of a sword, axes be brought, and he would order that all of the olive trees of Palestine be cut down.
"Yes, O King." One party would say. "Let all the trees be cut down, so that they be neither ours, nor theirs."
"No, my Lord." The other party would reply. "Let them have the land and all the trees on it. Only, please do not cut down the trees. Let them have the trees and all the land that goes with them. But in no wise, cut them down."
Smiling knowingly, the wise Solomon would say,
"Give the land to the party that cherishes the olive trees, for the trees come with the land, and the land comes with the trees. They are the rightful owners.
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