Palestine · Olive · Sumud
A Living Record of Genocide and Food Sovereignty
The olive tree is not just a crop. It is the backbone of Palestinian life. It contributes around 14% of the Palestinian economy and supports the livelihoods of more than 100,000 families. It is the symbol of sumud — steadfastness. It is the tree that has stood for millennia, rooted in the land, refusing to be erased.
And it is being systematically destroyed.
This week, Israeli bulldozers uprooted olive trees and cleared Palestinian land in the village of Deir Nidham, northwest of Ramallah, for the third consecutive day. The operation affected an estimated 36 to 40 dunams of land belonging to multiple families, uprooting dozens of olive trees — some of them the Roman variety, known for its good oil production.
One of the affected landowners, Abu Mohammed, told Anadolu: "Israeli bulldozers had been clearing parts of his land since Monday and uprooting olive trees planted there." He said between 12 and 13 dunams of his own land had been affected. "Nothing remains for me as a source of livelihood except God Almighty."
He said the bulldozing came before the harvest season — the timing designed to inflict maximum damage.
The Israeli authorities also issued a new military order (No. 104/26) targeting 94.79 dunams of Deir Nidham village land, mandating the removal of vegetation and the uprooting of olive trees, giving landowners only a 12-hour window to comply.
This brings the total military orders issued in 2026 to 53, targeting 2,287.58 dunams — compared to 47 orders targeting 1,613 dunams throughout 2025.
The numbers — Gaza Strip
Gaza's olive trees have fallen from nearly 2 million to roughly 150,000 since October 2023 — a decline of about 90%, according to a September 2026 report from the Gaza Ministry of Agriculture.
Gaza Ministry of Agriculture, Sept. 2026
Nearly 1 million of Gaza's 1.1 million olive trees have been destroyed since October 2023.
Gaza Ministry of Agriculture
More than 4 million fruit trees in total have been destroyed across Gaza since October 2023.
Gaza Ministry of Agriculture
The numbers — West Bank
Approximately 1 million olive trees have been destroyed in the West Bank since 1967.
UN OCHA oPt; ARIJ; Oxfam
Between 2010 and September 2025 alone, 250,274 olive trees were destroyed in the West Bank.
UN OCHA oPt Protection of Civilians database
Between October 2023 and late 2025, a further 56,077 olive trees were lost in the West Bank.
UN OCHA oPt
Figures are drawn from UN OCHA occupied Palestinian territory reporting, the Gaza Ministry of Agriculture, ARIJ and Oxfam. Where sources differ we give the conservative range. Verify them yourself — we would rather you did.
The destruction of olive trees is not a side effect of conflict. It is a deliberate strategy. It is environmental warfare aimed at dismantling Palestinian food sovereignty, economic independence, and cultural identity.
Academic analysis identifies six mechanisms of genocide: ideologization, classification, dehumanization, organization, propagandization, and annihilation. The destruction of olive groves follows this exact pattern.
A founding mythology is built — the land is declared empty, neglected, or waiting to be made productive by its supposed rightful owners. The Palestinian olive grove, tended for centuries, is recast as terrain that must be redeemed.
The olive tree is sorted into a legal and military category: a 'security threat', an 'enemy soldier', an obstruction to a wall, a road, a settlement. A living organism is redefined as an obstacle.
The tree and the people who tend it are stripped of standing. The farmer is not a farmer; the grove is not a livelihood. Both become legitimate targets, denied the protection owed to civilian life and to the land that sustains it.
The destruction is systematized. Military orders, bulldozers, permits, and 'state land' declarations are issued through the state apparatus — not by rogue actors, but through documented administrative procedure.
Palestinian agriculture is framed as backward, neglected, or illegitimate. Uprooting is presented as development, security, or legality. The violence is renamed as administration.
The tree is uprooted, burned, poisoned, or bulldozed. A Roman-era root ball that took a millennium to grow is destroyed in an afternoon. What cannot be replanted is mourned; what can be replanted takes a lifetime to bear again.
This is not metaphor. This is the structure of settler colonialism, which Patrick Wolfe describes as "a structure rather than an event" — a logic of elimination that operates regardless of who is in power.
A structure, not an event. A logic of elimination that operates regardless of who is in power.
Food sovereignty is not the same as food security. Food security means having enough to eat — often through dependence on external aid. Food sovereignty means political and sovereign autonomy over your own food system.
Razan Zuayter, Chairperson of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, explains that food has been used as a weapon against Palestinians for almost a century — through "direct theft, deprivation, poisoning, and destruction." The deliberate uprooting and burning of trees facilitates land confiscation.
The targeting of olive groves is the destruction of Palestinian food sovereignty. When a family loses its trees, it loses its income, its connection to the land, its history, and its future.
What you can do
Support the Trees for Life campaign. Led by the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA) and supported by organisations including Canaan Palestine and Zaytoun, this programme has distributed more than 429,873 seedlings to over 6,925 farmers, restoring agriculture and combating desertification.
Donate. £10 gifts one olive tree to a family in Palestine. Your donation supports farmers, restores the land, and sustains Palestinian agricultural heritage.
We take nothing from any of these. Go to them directly.