Answering The Olive Tree Destruction Libel

Every year in Israel we get a rash of news reports about Jews (or more likely “settlers”) cutting down “Palestinian” olive trees. The reports usually hint that thousands of trees were destroyed in a few minutes, usually over night and without anyone capturing this act on a cell phone video, of course. Because when it’s soldiers and little girls there are thousands of cameras; when it’s mythical acts of Jewish vandalism there are none.

As I was walking through Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv on Friday morning I came across two park employees cutting off a very small dead stump from a healthy young tree. Here’s the video.

It takes these two almost a minute to cut off a very small dead stump. They then clean off the shoots around the base leaving the healthy tree. That’s how you care for olive trees. Also notice how much work it is with a large chainsaw to cut even the smallest limb from an olive tree. Olive tree wood is very hard: cutting down mature olive trees is an extremely difficult task. This stump was around 20cm in diameter. Mature trees can be more than a meter across!

tree_huggerNo matter what we do, someone will accuse us of destroying olive trees: even well cared for trees will be used as teary photo opportunities like the one shown here.

And even knowing all this, whenever these reports come out the other side can rely on idiots (and convicted criminals) on our side to give these stories weight and further publicity. Here’s convicted fraudster, Ehud Olmert in 2006:

Olmert’s first statement was, “I condemn the phenomenon of cutting down olive trees, and I call upon the Attorney General to take action against the wild people responsible for this.”

Press reports widely assumed that the olive tree vandals are Jewish residents of Shomron communities – even though in the past this supposition has been all but negated. In addition, no Jews have ever been caught and/or accused of this crime.

On the contrary, there is evidence that left-wing activists are behind the accusations, even though Arabs themselves may have pruned the trees.

If nothing else, that short video shows how hard it is to cut olive trees. Anytime someone tells you Jews cut down thousands of trees in a night, ask them exactly how and why nobody managed to take a video or photograph of it happening. Because believe me, it makes a hell of a lot of noise.

cutting the stump of an olive tree
Cutting the stump of an olive tree – Photo: Brian of London

24 thoughts on “Answering The Olive Tree Destruction Libel”

  1. so, 800 trees = 800 x 2 (minutes – but do we take into consideration walking from one tree to the next?) = 1600 divided by 60 = 26.6 hours for one man. if a crew of 5 then 5 hours? but that means 5 electric saws. do hilltop youth have 5 saws? and how much noise?

    1. Most of the ‘crimes’ are committed on Shabbat right beside Arab villages. How likely is that not heard?

      1. RobGinChicago

        Must be those wily superpowered Israeli Ninjas and their Krav Maga chopping down those olive trees with their bare hands.

  2. I’m an Israeli Jewish olive farmer. To get an olive tree to bear fruit they must be pruned every year after harvest. The tree shown above is severely pruned which is occasionally done to rejuvenate the tree. It is definitely not dead. It will not give much fruit in the coming season but will in the season after. However, it should be noted that using a bigger saw that the one show, a relatively small tree can be cut off at the base (which will effectively kill it) in less than a minute.

    1. Thanks for your comment! I think that little tree in park Hayarkon is not much more than ornamental. But yes, they were doing a nice job cleaning it up.

      There’s no doubt you can chop a tree down, but what you can’t do is chop down hundreds and haul away the wood all in the dead of night with nobody noticing. As is often alleged.

  3. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if this videoclip is hijacked within the next few days by the Pallywood mob and then re-posted as “Jewish Settlers caught on video cutting down Palestinian olive trees”

  4. Anytime the Arabs make the accusations the Israeli government pays them for the trees – even when it is proven to be done by the Arabs. It is a no-loss situation for the Arabs. They get paid for it and Israelis get blamed no matter what

  5. It seems that every Palestinian must own thousands of olive trees – if one were to believe these fallacious reports.

  6. Someone explain to me how a vile serpent such as Ehud Olmert ever became Prime Minister or even held a cabinet position?

    1. When Sharon had his stroke, Livni wanted Kadima to choose a new leader but the Israeli Supreme Court ruled Sharon was only “temporarily incapacitated” and Olmert, who had been chosen by Sharon as Deputy leader, could remain leader until Sharon’s return. So in fact, Olmert was a non-elected party leader whose party won the election.

      When he first took over he was the non-elected leader of a party no one had voted for since Kadima hadn’t run (it didn’t even exist yet) in the previous election.

    1. And how easy would it be to uproot ancient olive trees?

      I’ve seen some pictures of the supposed “uprooting”; nice neat holes, and laying next to the holes are saplings with nice neat root balls. These pictures look a lot more like planting -in-progress. First the holes are made, someone else lays a sapling next to each hole, and the planting crew then plants the saplings in the holes.

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