Pinar Dinc*

According to Greek mythology, there was a contest between two Olympian gods, Athena and Poseidon, to determine who would become the patron deity of the city that was ruled by Cecrops. The Olive tree was Athena’s gift to the city that made her win the competition and become the patron of Athens. The olive branch has also been an important symbol of peace as people associated the planting of olive trees with the dispelling of evil spirits and believed that it would endure peace. Some 2500 years later, it is hard to continue believing so. 

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured vast amounts of Palestinian property between 1968 and 1979 and legitimized its actions with the argument that this was a temporary, military requisition for security purposes (Braverman 2009). Reports suggest that since 1967, over a million olive trees have been vandalized in Palestine via cutting, uprooting, stealing, burning, etc. Braverman (2009, pg. 130) explains Israel’s rationale for destructing olive trees in three ways: (1) Making way for the Separation Barrier, (2) abolishing hiding grounds for ‘terrorists’, and (3) for further security measures such as constructing watchtowers, checkpoints, fences, and roads around Jewish settlements.

Aysegul Arslan*

Amidst the extreme summer heat in the drylands of Urfa province in Southeastern Türkiye, the harvest season is starting at full speed, and thousands of seasonal agricultural workers – entire families – are ready to immigrate to work long hours in the fields. When temperatures regularly reach 40 ℃, agricultural work is extremely exhausting. Even though the exact number of people is unknown, most estimates suggest that at least one million people are engaged in seasonal and temporary informal agricultural labor in Türkiye. Most of them are landless Kurds from the Urfa city of Southeastern Türkiye and the majority neither own nor have access to land to earn their livelihoods. Every harvest season, thousands of landless Kurdish seasonal and temporary agricultural worker families migrate informally from the gecekondu districts, which are houses or shelters constructed quickly without proper legal permissions in Urfa city, to work in both Urfa’s rural areas and other regions in Türkiye. Most landless Kurdish seasonal agricultural workers do not have employment contracts and they are paid below the national minimum wage.