When did we go from being a people who plant trees to a people who cut and burn them down?

When I see photographs of Israeli settlers cutting, uprooting, or setting fire to Palestinians' olive trees to intimidate them, I can't reconcile what I see with what I thought I knew of our own tradition.

Tu Bishvat is the New Year of the Trees, one of four new years in our tradition. Children celebrate the holiday with songs and tree planting. On Tu Bishvat, it is common to retell the Talmudic story of the famous miracle worker Honi who once saw a man planting a carob tree. Ḥoni said to him: How long until it will bear fruit? The man said: Not for seventy years. Ḥoni said: Do you expect to live long enough to benefit from this tree? The man responded: I found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted for me, I am planting for my descendants.

Jews venerate this symbolism of a future for our children, and we show our faith in that future by planting trees. The chalutzim who built the Jewish state planted forests. Today we recognize that covering entire hillsides with trees common in northern Europe was not so environmentally sound, but the impulse was a good one. Planting trees means we believe that there will be a future.

Years ago I went to the West Bank with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who then headed the organization Rabbis for Human Rights, to help with the Palestinians' olive harvest. We were a group of international volunteers from many countries. When Arik gave us instructions, I felt ashamed. "If the settlers come to make trouble, don't engage with them. Your job is to interpose yourself between the Palestinian farmers and the settlers. The IDF will protect the settlers; that's what the government has directed them to do." For some of the international volunteers, this was their introduction to Israel. This was the ugly side.

Every year, settlers destroy hundreds of Palestinian trees in acts of wanton vandalism. They attack the farmers and prevent them from harvesting the fruit of those long-lived trees. What kind of future do Palestinian children see as their Jewish neighbors destroy their olive trees, their source of livelihood? The message is clear: Arabs not wanted here.

Can we ever go back to treating trees with reverence? Can we observe Tu Bishvat with a sense of joy and hopefulness? I don't accept the alternative. Our tradition enjoins us to "choose life" and this includes trees.

Israel’s Peace Now movement and Americans for Peace Now, its American sister-organization, work to end the occupation and establish peaceful relations between Israel and an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Please support us in this work.

Thank you,
Barbara Green

P.S. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in 2017 alone, nearly 3,000 olive trees have been vandalized by settlers. This doesn't include assaults on civilians and other destruction of property - all forbidden by Jewish law- but the destruction of these trees is the greatest irony because they are olive trees - the symbol of peace. Help us expose those who sow hatred and conflict through assault and vandalism. Support Americans for Peace Now.

Tu Bishvat begins the night of January 30th. Tu Bishvat is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. It is also called "Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot," literally "New Year of the Trees."

Barbara Green has been a volunteer for Americans for Peace Now for many years. She lives in Washington, DC.

APN’s Ori Nir spoke on January 26^th at Northern Virginia’s Temple Rodef Shalom on the Six Day War of 1967, the opportunities it provided for Israel to reach peace with its neighbors and on the way in which the 1967 war the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Lebanon War shaped Israel’s peace movement.

Watch the video of Debra Shushan, APN's Director of Policy and Government Relations, interviewed on TRT World regarding the American Jewish community's response to President Trump's decisions on Jerusalem. She debated Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

There is no reason to rejoice in Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Israel, which commenced yesterday and will continue through tomorrow. It is clear that Pence has come to Israel to pursue his own domestic political agenda, cynically politicizing the US-Israeli relationship to pander to his evangelical Christian base.

In his speech to the Knesset, Pence told Israeli lawmakers that "America stands with Israel." While the US-Israel bond is vital, so are the building blocks on which that bond is constructed.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This week, Alpher discusses why US Vice-President Mike Pence is visiting Israel; why the Trump administration is withholding financial aid to the Palestinians; Secretary of State Tillerson's announcment that US troops will remain in Syria even after the final defeat of ISIS; and whether the Trump administration is performing worse in the Middle East than its predecessors.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions yesterday voted narrowly to confirm Kenneth Marcus as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education. The vote took place along party lines. Americans for Peace Now (APN) applauds members of the committee who opposed Marcus's confirmation and welcomes opposition to the appointment by a steadily increasing number of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Leading Palestinian pollster and scholar Khalil Shikaki, in a conversation from his Ramallah office, reviewing key challenges facing Palestinians and their leaders, and explaining the dwindling support among West Bank and Gaza Palestinians -- particularly the younger generation -- for the creation of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state. 

Listen to the full episode

iTunes: apple.co/2tOwhOI 
Google: bit.ly/2seYg8o 

Reuters: "Israel approves hundreds of new settlement homes: NGO"

Peace Now's Hagit Ofran noted that many of the latest housing projects were slated for settlements deep inside the West Bank.

The Australian (from AFP): 'Israel approves more than 1100 new West Bank settlement homes' (subscription needed)

Peace Now said 6742 housing projects were approved in the settlements last year, the highest since 2013.

The Independent: "Israel approves more than 1,100 new settlement homes in occupied West Bank"

In a statement, the group (Peace Now) said: "The government is attempting to destroy the possibility of a two-state solution and the prospects of peace by building more and more in the settlements."

Boston Globe: "Group: Israel OKs more construction in West Bank settlements"

Ofran (of Peace Now) said the government is ‘‘trying to prevent the possibility for peace and a two-state solution.’’

Ha'aretz: "EU, U.K., Germany and France Condemn Israeli Plan to Build Hundreds of Settlement Homes"

Israeli anti-settlement Peace Now also denounced the 1,122 new settlement units which were approved this week.

Jordan Times: "Jordan, world countries reject Israeli settlement plans"

The Chairman of the PLO and its Central Council over the past couple of days nullified the Oslo Agreements, conditioned recognition of Israel on Israeli recognition of Palestinian sovereignty, shunned the Trump Administration as a peace broker, and announced they would seek further recognition in international fora.

The Palestinian Central Council (PCC) statement followed an inflammatory and unconstructive speech by Palestinian Authority President and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the Council in Ramallah on Sunday.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This week, Alpher discusses the situation in Gaza; Abbas's aggressive speech at the Palestinian Central Council; Israel's reaction; talk about two potential American peace proposals; and the bottom line.