Born out of twenty years reading and thinking, this unique book is partly a streamlined history homing in on the core issues of the Palestine/Israel problem, partly a poetic reflection on place and people, partly an impassioned cry for justice. By weaving these three things together in one text, Ian Wellens has created something genuinely new.
On the one hand, it works for newcomers to the issues: here they will find the story and the basic issues laid out with great clarity. It does more, however, via its five ‘fruit sections’, which zoom in on details and events in a way which illuminate the history whilst also breaking up the narrative. These are also the parts of the book where imagination is brought to bear; they add an emotional response and a moral perspective which the Palestinian story surely deserves.
“Such a beautiful, poetic, wonderful text. Ian Wellens has covered everything, and so very well … a great pleasure to read.”
“Land.
People.
Trees.
Inseparable.
Controlling the first required
the removal of the second.
And perhaps it was always going to become
impossible
for the newcomers to tolerate
the continued presence of the third.
Perhaps it was always
inevitable
that, sooner or later,
the olive trees would become a problem,
and would have to go.”