Palestinians dedicate new West Bank olive grove to Jimmy Carter

Farmers union and US-based NGO ‘Treedom for Palestine’ remember late US president, who after leaving office characterized Israeli control over West Bank as apartheid

Palestinian farmers plant the first olive tree ahead of the replant of a 10 dunam, 2.5 acres, of land with 250 olive trees, part of the joint Freedom Farm project of the Palestinian Farmers Union and the Treedom for Palestine 2025 in memory of President Jimmy Carter, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, January 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Palestinian farmers plant the first olive tree ahead of the replant of a 10 dunam, 2.5 acres, of land with 250 olive trees, part of the joint Freedom Farm project of the Palestinian Farmers Union and the Treedom for Palestine 2025 in memory of President Jimmy Carter, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, January 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

TULKAREM, West Bank — Palestinian activists and residents planted a grove of 250 olive trees in a northern West Bank town on Monday in memory of the late US president Jimmy Carter, describing him as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause.

The former president’s legacy is “rooted” among Palestinians and across the globe, said Abbas Melhem, executive manager of the Palestinian Farmers Union. Carter was one of the few world leaders who “stood firmly supporting the struggle of the Palestinians for independence and for freedom,” he said.

Under clear winter skies, Palestinian kids helped a handful of adults place the trees into newly dug holes.

Melhem said the 10-dunam (2.5-acre) grove in the city of Tulkarem, titled “Freedom Farm,” would be fenced in to protect it from wildlife or extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian olive trees in the past.

The advocacy group for farmers in the West Bank launched the project in collaboration with US-based nonprofit Treedom for Palestine, which plants trees to empower Palestinian farmers.

Carter, who died last month at the age of 100, brokered the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, marking the first peace treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors.

Former US president Jimmy Carter holds a copy of his book, ‘Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid,’ at a book signing in Tempe, Arizona, December 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

In his later years, Carter was highly critical of Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians, saying conditions in the West Bannk amounted to apartheid.

Israel rejects any allegation of apartheid, saying its own Arab citizens enjoy equal rights. Israel also notes that it granted limited autonomy to the Palestinian Authority at the height of the peace process in the 1990s and withdrew all its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005.

“I think planting olive trees that live at least 100 years old like him is a very suitable way to honor his life and his legacy,” said George Zeidan, the Carter Center’s Director in Israel and Palestine.

Most Popular
read more: