Thoughts

Between Olive Trees: How Belal Saleh Was Shot Harvesting In Nablus

By Habiba El Madbouly

There is so much meaning contained in olives, and olive harvesting to the Palestinian people. It is symbolic of heritage that can’t be wiped out from history. Therefore, when a Palestinian man is murdered by an Israeli settler while he is harvesting olives, that has a similar effect as saying a Muslim man has died while praying, or while fighting at war defending his country.

The story of the forty-year-old Palestinian Belal Saleh goes like this.

It is the season of harvest the family of Belal Saleh decided to go pick the olives from the trees in Nablus.

Completely unarmed, they were attacked by Israeli settlers. Saleh’s relatives said the shooting was too harsh, they tried to hide from it but Saleh couldn’t and fell dead instantly.

A day earlier to the death of their father, Saleh’s children inscribed the names of martyrs in Gaza because they were moved and touched by the bombardment, not knowing that tomorrow they will face death.

On the same day, he was taken by the masses of ‘Sawya’ village located in Southern Nablus to his grave, in a massive funeral. Saleh was wrapped in the Palestinian flag while hundreds of people yelled denouncing the crimes of the occupation.

A response came from Israel, and Haaretz ‘the Israeli newspaper’ claimed that the Israeli forces had detained the man who shot Saleh.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on October 28. The latest death was the murder of a 40-year-old Palestinian man, Belal Mohamed Saleh, after being shot in the chest by a settler in Nablus.

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Habiba El Madbouly

Habiba is a creative writer and poet, pursuing her master's degree in English literature. She shares a life-long obsession with literature and philosophy and has her own poetry blog.

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