Zeitoun

This fall I had several opportunities to help harvest olives on the Lutheran World Federation campus located on the Mount of Olives. At the LWF campus there are several olive groves with beautiful olive trees in need of harvesting each year. The olives are harvested by volunteers and you are more than welcome to come to the Holy Land to help harvest olives next year! Please follow this link to learn more!

Using a rake to pull olives out of the tree

Harvesting olives is a lot of fun. We began by laying tarps down on the ground around the olive trees so that the olives could be pulled from the branches and dropped onto the tarp to collect later. Of course, this system means that one must be careful where one steps so as not to prematurely crush the olives. Using our hands or small rakes, we pulled olives from the trees and onto the ground. While some folks collect from the ground, others climb up into the tree to reach the highest olives.

My fellow YAGM Alma is quite the climber!

Once the olives have been removed from the tree, we gather them into the tarp and throw out any branches, leaves or stones. Then the olives are poured into large burlap bags and taken to the olive press in Latrun where they are, well, pressed to make oil. The oil sits for several months to properly age and then is ready for consumption! Are you interested in having some olive oil from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem? The LWF sells its olive oil as a fundraiser for the hospital and other amazing services. You can buy your very own bottle of oil complete with a beautiful glass jar, hand-blown in Hebron by following this link!

Me, olive tree and a bounty of olives!

In case you were wondering, olives fresh from the tree don’t taste good; whether black or green, the are quite bitter and leave an uncomfortable paste-y sensation in one's mouth. Although not recommended for regular consumption it is considered necessary to try at least one olive right off the tree while harvesting, just for the experience. :-) 


Olive trees are quite beautiful. They have a light colored bark and their trunks are elegantly twisted. The leaves have a waxy shine about them, though in fall they are often covered with the dust that so permeates this dry landscape. Olive wood is excellent for burning; with a clean-burning and long flame.


Olive trees are strong; standing close to the ground, they can withstand high winds and blowing sand. They can hunker down and survive through long droughts, a necessity in this dusty desert climate. They are also quite long-lived. The oldest known olive tree is in Greece. At 2,000 years old, it is still producing fruit.

Zeitoun, meaning both olive and olive tree in Arabic, is a common and very highly-valued word. During olive harvest time we had an entire unit in the Kindergarten dedicated to learning about olive harvest. The kids drew pictures of olive trees, brought in olives from their homes and ate lots of foods saturated in tasty olive oil. I have been told by more than one teacher at my school that I should drink a spoonful of olive oil each morning, "for my health". While I haven't actually done this, I understand the sentiment which honors olive oils' nutritional benefits, particularly as compared to other oils.

It is hard to explain the extent to which Palestinians value olives, olive oil and olive trees.The best comparison I can think of is the way Ents feel about their trees in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Palestinians feel for their trees. Since olive trees can live for a very long time many families have tended and harvested the same trees for generations. Unfortunately, when one becomes a refugee, often the beloved family olive groves must be left behind. Sometimes the Wall separates families from their trees, making it impossible to harvest one's own precious fruits. The olives then either go to waste or are harvested by someone else. Palestinians are as rooted in the soil of their homeland as the trees they so fervently honor. 

Living here for the past few months, I have come to highly respect olive trees as well as the people who so love them. Both are strong and able to thrive in the midst of long-term hardships. So here's to you Zeitoun and Palestinians; may your roots be deep, your trunk  strong and your branches nourished by sunlight.