image 1
i am spending the morning planting olive trees outside of nablus with a palestinian community. the other people on the bus with me are a mixture of israelies and internationals, all committed - even with different outlooks and politics - to the safety of palestinians and their olive trees. we have planted maybe twenty trees, it has only been 40 minutes and we see them drive up. three soldiers leave their truck and tell us that the field is now a closed military zone. all of us have to leave. an organizer asks for a physical order of closure per the law. they refuse. we gather our things and walk back to the side of the road outside of al-sawayia and listen to a leader in the community tell us about how constant this treatment is. about their children trying to go school, their people trying to tend their olives, their community trying to survive. we board the bus again. i doze on the drive back, watching the landscape blur as my eyes shut. i wake up briefly, a soldier ...