Kalamata, October 2026:
Under the shade of the “Mother Olive Tree of Kalamata,” an ancient olive tree estimated to be more than 1,600 years old, the day felt like a celebration! An age-old ritual of coexistence with nature, an act of togetherness, memory, and continuity across generations. The laughter of children was a reminder of this, while the sound of olives falling onto the harvesting nets seemed to confirm it, promising to give us olive oil. This year’s olive oil — a precious and irreplaceable source of life.
Palestine, Occupied West Bank (Burin), October 2026:
Here, the olive harvest is nothing like a celebration. It is an ordeal fraught with danger, a nightmare. The harvest is systematically disrupted by settler attacks, the destruction of olive trees, and restrictions on Palestinians’ access to their olive groves, to their own land. The Israeli occupation regime — a colonial apparatus fuelled by hatred of everything indigenous — targets even the trees. It seeks to destroy not only olive production but also the deep-rooted bonds between a people, their land, and their history.
