Wandering Roots: Trees as Symbols of Belonging in Israel/Palestine

Abstract

Trees, whether planted, described or depicted, rarely signify simple and “pure” organic matter: imbued with a multiplicity of memories and myths, trees are often centralised in stories of belonging, or “rootedness.” In the case of Palestine/Israel, these narratives are often taken to their most extreme form: intertwined with politics of borders, land ownership and the violence of occupation, the trope of the tree as “maker” of belonging becomes a loaded symbol in the fight for citizenship. In this thesis, I will investigate the ways in which trees have both shaped and have been shaped by the region’s political landscape. Or, in other words: how have trees been utilised in the making of national narratives in Palestine/Israel? Each chapter will focus on a specific tree (the Prickly Pear tree, the imported European pine trees, and the orange trees of Jaffa), tracing its development into a symbol capable of expressing the fears and desires of the people wanting to solidify their connection to the land. The narratives uncovered in this process, whether Israeli, Palestinian, or otherwise colonial, are often intricately connected. At times this is down to appropriation, at others it is a matter of a history erased, borrowed, reshaped. Though most significantly, the relationship between these “tree stories” is formed by the multidirectional ways in which communities remember. Yet, despite the many national “tree narratives” that have passed between Palestine, Israel, their respective diasporas, there is very little (to no) awareness of shared stories and histories in the making of these narratives. Throughout this thesis, I will follow the rhizomes of memory as they take us from the local to the global, looking for “cracks” in the divide where cultural production has allowed for moments of dialogue. By investigating the multiplicity of voices written onto the trees in the landscape of Palestine/Israel, this research will focus on what is erased, what is remembered, and what is imagined in the making of a national narrative of belonging.