“Wherever you see cactus, know there was a Palestinian village in that place”. That’s what they tell you if you ever visit the West Bank. Israel has been removing, bulldozing, erasing villages and cities for decades to terraform the land. But the problem is, Cactus keeps growing back. No matter how they try to destroy the land and the soil and build their settlements, cactus keep coming back.

A friend of mine just came back from there carrying a gift for me: Locally squeezed olive oil from a her village in the West Bank. “Forget the commercial stuff you buy from stores. We squeeze oil in our own villages.”

They squeeze the olives on the stone mills, use clean dedicated straw bags to squeeze it on the extruding machines. Same process that has been done for 100, 200, 400 maybe 600 years. As old as these trees. You take a product of the land, squeeze it to its limits and you get that pure green gold.

A healing potion of life.

“Just put some oil” is the answer for everything in Palestine. Hungry ? Add oil. A bit sick ? Rub oil. Want to feel better about the world? Oil as old as the earth is there for you. They are not just olive trees. They are family. They are there to feed you, heal you and take care of you.

How can you uproot a member of the family and call this land yours? I have no idea. The trees don’t agree with that. And cactus definitely don’t agree with that. Maybe we got it all wrong! Maybe olive trees are not just an extension of Palestinian heritage. Maybe, Palestinians themselves are an extension of the land. They are like the trees. You can beat them, you can pressure them, you can squeeze them and push them beyond any human limits. But they don’t die. Like crushed olives that produce green gold. And from death, a million lives will be born. And their pain will eventually be the healing potion for all of us.

And if you try to uproot them, they won’t go away. You think they will. But they come back. Like cactus. To defy you, to stand up for you, take your abuse and prick you back. They are there, to stay. Forever.

Vir: Bassem Youssef