« Translation across space and meaning: Katsuya Hirano, Daniel Abbe, ‘Settler-Colonial Translation: “Civilization” and the Ainu Voices’, in Talal Asad, Jun’ichi Isomae, Naoki Sakai, Katsuya Hirano, Gouranga Charan Pradhan (eds), Beyond the Untranslatable: Theorizing Postcolonial Translation, Routledge, 2026

The roots of settler colonialism: Aysha Sana, ‘Olive Trees, Resistance, and Colonial Contestations in Palestine: A Political and Ecological Analysis’, in Priyanka Chandra (ed.), Undisciplining IR: Beyond Mainstream International Relations, Routledge, 2026

26Jun26

Abstract: Olive trees, emblematic of Palestinian identity, resilience, and sustenance, occupy a central yet precarious role in the ongoing colonization of Palestine by Israel. The proposed paper explores the ecological, cultural, and political significance of olive trees in the Zionist settler-colonial project. The destruction of over 800,000 Palestinian olive trees since 1967 reveals a deliberate strategy to dispossess Palestinians of their land, disrupt food sovereignty, and undermine their deep-rooted connection to their homeland. While olive groves are crucial to Palestinian livelihood and symbolize sumud (steadfastness), they are also targeted as “enemy soldiers” in a legal and ideological battle over land ownership. The chapter examines the paradoxical use of olive trees in Zionist narratives, first as symbols of a biblical homeland and later abandoned in favor of European pines to erase Palestinian history and conceal Nakba atrocities. Through literary and artistic works, like those of Mahmoud Darwish and Sliman Mansour, olive trees emerge as “sites of memory,” preserving Palestinian narratives against erasure. Simultaneously, Israel’s monocultural afforestation, environmental exploitation, and the uprooting of olive trees for settlement expansion demonstrate ecological imperialism and environmental Nakba. It also analyses the ideological tensions within Zionism, where the destruction of olive trees contradicts both Jewish religious laws and environmental claims, further exposing its colonial ambitions. The paper looks into how olive trees, beyond their economic and symbolic roles, stand as a powerful counter-narrative to Zionist myths, asserting the enduring presence and resistance of the Palestinian people. Through these trees, the struggle for Palestinian liberation intersects with the broader fight for environmental justice, challenging ongoing acts of both genocide and ecocide.


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