Juman Simaan' s book Olive Growing in Palestine: Stories of Everyday Forms of Resistance (University of Georgia Press, 2026) does not commence with a description of the olive groves.
Instead, it describes the presence of Israeli colonialism on Palestinian territory through checkpoints, the apartheid wall and settlements. One anecdote mentioned early in the book is about bees flying over the apartheid wall in search of nectar. The bees are free, unlike Palestinian farmers, who cannot access their agricultural land due to the wall. Simaan's book expounds on research conducted between 2013 and 2018, with further travels beyond the research period to observe how olive growing became a form of resistance for Palestinian families. The author, a Palestinian holding Israeli citizenship and having studied occupational therapy in Israel, noticed that the Western concepts imparted at university did not apply to the Global South communities. Contrary to individualised practices in the West, the Global South's history of suffering under colonialism renders occupational therapy a collective effort. Focusing on four families living between Beit Lahem and Al-Khalil, the book applies a decolonial methodology to decolonise ethnography.
"Ethnography is decolonised when members of the community themselves are interested in learning about their own group and its praxis, in the hope of achieving social and political justice," the book reads.
The Palestinian people are not perceived as passive victims in decolonial ethnography, but as people whose living and being constitute resistance against colonialism and belonging to the land. The book focuses on how Israel's settler-colonialism impacted olive growing in the occupied Palestinian territories, how communities enable olive growing, and the community values adopted that enable olive growing to continue despite colonialism. Simaan identifies the concepts of sutra (doing for well-being), ’awna (doing for belonging) and sumud (belonging for becoming) as principles that enable olive growing in Palestine. All three are interconnected and, as the book states towards its conclusion, provide an understanding of occupational science and therapy for Palestine and the Global South. Through interviews conducted with the four families involved in olive growing, the book explores tangible realities of a segment of Palestinian life disrupted by colonialism and settler-colonial expansion. Land monitoring by the Israeli authorities, for example, can lead to expropriation if the land in question is left unploughed.
Yet colonialism creates the conditions for land to remain unploughed, such as restrictions on movement for Palestinians . For many families, olive growing provides self-sufficiency, which in itself is a form of resistance against Israeli colonialism.
Psychologically, olive growing as a family or community activity also provides well-being and security.
In terms of the wider framework of anti-colonial struggle, Simaan writes, "Moreover, olive growing families had acquired a new role in society as land protectors and resisters against colonialism and land segregation." Olive growing collaboration is based on solidarity practices. Through interviews with a family whose village is located on the Green Line and lacks infrastructure, Simaan notes that olive trees serve as a protection against land confiscation.
Yet solidarity practices are also facing the consequences of colonialism, as the younger generation sometimes chooses to veer away from olive growing. However, the author notes a consciousness spanning generations that enables the communities to stand together and improve both socially and economically. Families also learn from each other to protect their land from Israeli confiscation. "The olive tree is a national, political, spiritual, and religious symbol that is ubiquitous in Palestinian culture," Simaan writes. Olive growing in Palestine also represents resistance to colonial injustice. In different decades of Israeli colonialism in Palestine, resistance has changed. The land used for olive growing in the occupied West Bank , for example, is subject to colonial expropriation, and the threat of settlement expansion is always present and visible. The fear of annexation is another concern for Palestinian olive growers. Sumud, as one olive grower described it, is "born of an internal struggle people face in deciding how to respond to their daily conditions." Olive growing not only faces colonialism as a threat, but also the Western parameters that are supposed to protect Palestinians, instead render them more vulnerable to dependency. Besides the entire political process from the Nakba to Oslo and the present, one factor which Simaan mentions is the Western non-governmental organisations, which also create bureaucratic hurdles for Palestinians to secure funding.
As one interviewee stated, "NGOs make farmers wait for aid in order to reclaim their land, rather than be on their land and do it themselves." Simaan presents Palestinian forms of resistance through olive growing within the historical context, describing the observed process as "a way of knowing that aims to resist systems of oppression, including universalistic ideas about the everyday life of colonised communities." Such forms of resistance, Simaan states, "are better suited to lead decolonial liberation." The book invites an approach which challenges not only Western imperialism, but also academia, notably ethnography and anthropology, as it places the Palestinian experience within a Palestinian study carried out by a Palestinian author – knowledge and understanding from within, as opposed to impositions upon the already existing knowledge and experience of the Palestinian people under colonialism. Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book reviewer and blogger specialising in the struggle for memory in Chile and Palestine, colonial violence and the manipulation of international law Follow her on X: @walzerscent