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PALESTINE

Icons of Palestinian Identity, Pt. 1

Series: Icons 1–7: Olives | Oranges | Cactus | Figs | Ka’ek | Za’atar | Dates

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Enjoy this first installment of a series on Palestinian symbolism and culture. You can also follow my daily releases on LinkedIn.

1. Olives

‘Zaitoun in Arabic means olives. Olive trees are almost sacred, revered for their strength, stability and productivity. A tree continues to bear fruit for hundreds of years. It is handed down generations, producing fruit, oil, wood, and fragrance. Certain olive trees in Jerusalem are said to be living witnesses to Jesus’s prayers underneath them. The richness of its produce made the olive branch a symbol of peace, brotherhood, and hope.’

— from Ramsey Hanhan, Fugitive Dreams

2000-year-old Jerusalem Olive trees — The very trees under which Jesus prayed the night of his arrest on the Mount of Olives (Photo by the author, 2004)

2. Oranges

“Her face gleams golden in the approaching car lights. She floats — round, distended, her womb cuddling the child orange inside her. Heavy with the earthy sap she nursed, she tugs at the umbilical cord tying her to the sagging branch. Toes clawed deep into the Earth, hair brushing the sky with hues of the sun and the moon, her mother tree feeds her all the riches that…