00:00:00.000For all the generations in me, I sing, I sing, I speak my truth.
00:00:23.120For all the generations in me, I sing, I sing, I speak my truth.
00:00:29.980made in collaboration with Olive Odyssey, a Palestinian olive oil brand that serves as a
00:00:35.300gateway for Palestinian farmers to connect with people around the world and tell their story
00:00:40.780through the foods they produce. In this series, you'll hear from Aya Gawazi-Faur, Olive Odyssey's
00:00:46.680co-founder, about plants indigenous to the Palestinian landscape and their deep ties to
00:00:51.900culture, resistance, and enduring lifeways. Amid ongoing Israeli occupation and violence against
00:00:58.620Palestinians, we hope the series serves as a reminder of not only the lifeblood of Palestinian
00:01:04.060land, but also of the sacredness of land itself and all the life it holds. Plants Are Political
00:01:10.480calls us to consider the way landscapes, foodways, and connection to the earth are intertwined with
00:01:16.140systems of oppression and movements of resistance. May this be an invitation to reflect on the central
00:01:22.180role land and the more-than-human world plays in movements for justice everywhere. In this episode,
00:01:27.940we focus on watermelon and prickly pear thank you for listening
00:01:32.300okay so much more to to talk about there but i do also want to be able to discuss watermelon
00:01:44.680and prickly pear and so i'd love to get into your relationship to watermelon and prickly pear and
00:01:55.400And if you could tell us about your relationship with these plants and the seasonality of them
00:02:02.920and how you experience them in the cycles of the year.
00:02:11.940For watermelon, really, it's a symbol of Palestine.
00:02:16.540I think today everybody knows about the use of watermelon as a symbol for Palestine.
00:02:24.980After the occupation of the West Bank, Ghazi, and parts of even 1948 in 1967, the Israeli government banned the raising of Palestinian flags.
00:02:39.280And during this time, so people were trying to display the Palestinian flag in different ways than using the flag,
00:02:47.980so that people would hang their clothes outside of the house.
00:02:51.800So they would do green pants or red shirts, white shirts and black shirts.
00:03:01.020And you know how this was the way you would show the flag in your home.
00:03:05.580So people would try and display the flag in different ways.
00:03:11.400And so one of the ways was the watermelon having all of the colors of the flag
00:03:17.520it became a flag in a way and today i think you know people were are carrying a watermelon
00:03:26.800around in protests and you know around their necks some a left of people on their bodies and
00:03:37.260you know it's a reminder no matter what you do to suppress resistance or to not allow people to
00:03:44.800express their love for their land. I think people will always find ways to express their
00:03:51.540feelings and thoughts and love for a land. Okay, so we talked a little bit about watermelon
00:03:58.000as a symbol, and I am wanting to read this quote by Al Jazeera, and it says, quote,
00:04:06.260following the 1967 war when Israel seized control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
00:04:11.200and annexed East Jerusalem. The government banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied territory.
00:04:18.000Although the flag has not always been banned by law, the watermelon caught on as a symbol of
00:04:22.780resistance. It appears in art, shirts, graffiti, posters, and on the ubiquitous watermelon emoji
00:04:28.680on social media. And yeah, I'm wondering if you can maybe discuss how nature can help us in our
00:04:36.740resistance efforts whether it be a symbol or sustenance or inspiration yeah i think i think
00:04:44.420for here like we've talked about the olive tree we've talked about the za'atar and here you see
00:04:51.980the the connection to this uh fruit that is really a symbolic uh connection although there's a whole
00:05:00.640different story about growing the watermelon here in palestine and not having enough water
00:05:34.340I think in every aspect of the colonized, plants are a big part of the decolonization and achieving liberation, whether it's for food, for symbols, emotional connection to these plants.
00:05:53.680Yeah, I think plants and nature plays a huge part in the movement for liberation in Palestine.
00:06:58.820And what is your relationship with prickly pear?
00:07:23.380I don't see that used as a symbol, obviously, in the way watermelon has,
00:07:27.780But I know you've mentioned that it's also a really important fruit.
00:07:33.620Yeah, so prickly pear comes to Palestine from Mexico.
00:07:38.980And back then, so we've learned from the indigenous to, we brought it here really because we've discovered about the cushiony and using this insect to make color.
00:07:54.120and you know use this color to paint fabric or food and so this is something that the natives
00:08:02.500here learned from the natives there and brought it here we planted it in a lot of the villages
00:08:09.340and we use the plant also as a divider you know to protect that people lived in small villages
00:08:14.760and small towns so and small communities so they would surround themselves with the prickly pear
00:08:21.080and this way animals wouldn't come into the villages and maybe eat the animals that they've
00:08:28.480grown or the plants that they've grown and so today in 48 when over 500 palestinian towns and
00:08:38.960villages were demolished and ethnically cleansed all of these villages most of them were destroyed
00:08:44.500and all the buildings were destroyed in many villages you can't see anything other than
00:08:50.180scattered stones that you know for most people they would look just like normal scattered stones
00:08:55.700but what's always tells you that there was a palestinian village or town is the prickly pear
00:09:04.140because you see it there and this is one way where you you walk around these huge forests
00:09:13.420that they've planted of pine trees that one of the reasons they planted it is to hide all of
00:09:20.320the villages that were under but you still see the prickly pear the prickly pear has become
00:09:26.960and it was also in arabic it's called sabr which means patience you know when you see it you know
00:09:33.620there was a village here has become a symbol for palestinians for being you know patient because
00:09:40.740the plant also it's called sabr because you know it can go throughout the whole summer without
00:09:47.080water and it still hold on and grow and so it became also a symbol for palestinian resistance
00:09:54.640and endurance in a way and you see it in a lot of palestinian arts and yeah maybe i think the
00:10:04.560Watermelon today is known around the world is more famous.
00:10:11.000But within Palestine, I would probably say that prickly pear is a more significant symbol, really.