The Challenges Faced by The Palestinians as Highlighted in The Film Lemon Tree

The Lemon Tree provides a very interesting point of view on the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. While most material on the subject concentrates on hard politics and the justifications on both sides of the matter concerning legal and historical considerations, this film stands as a statement from a somewhat different perspective. The argument being made here is not a political or a legal one, but rather a moral one. It portrays the plight of the Palestinian people from an emotional and spiritual level through the protagonist’s struggle to hold on to her lemon grove.

The film follows Salma, a Palestinian widow living right on the boarder of the West Bank and Israel. Her son is away in the United States and her only companion is an elderly man who helps her tend to her lemon grove. The grove sits right on the boarder to Israel and it his her most cherished possession. When the Israeli Defense Minister moves in next door, he sees the grove as a threat to his security – as well as the security of the nation of Israel – and orders for it to be removed. Salma teams up with a lawyer named Ziad and tries to take legal action to preserve her lemon grove. After a lengthy and highly publicized legal battle, the Supreme Court rules that he grove will be pruned so that it no longer poses a threat. In the end, Salma finds herself unsatisfied with this ruling and laments the loss of her precious lemon grove.

It’s plain to see what the lemon grove represents for Salma. It’s her only connection to her old way life. She no longer has her husband, father, or son there, so the lemon grove stands as a symbol for the pleasant times of her past. This is indicative of the struggle of the Palestinian people as a whole. They had their land and their very way of life stripped from them by the Israelis, and to this day the remain spiritually persecuted as the Israelis build fences around them. So for Salma, the lemon grove is not only her last connection to her family, but it’s also the last connection she has to her rightful homeland. This is why she remains so defiant in the face of what seems like an insurmountable force. It’s because the Israelis have already stripped away most of what she has, and if they take the lemon grove then she’ll have nothing left at all. We see connection to it illustrated nicely in the flashback scene where she recalls playing in the grove with her father. Immediately after, the film cuts to shots of the wall being constructed. The juxtaposition of these two images shows how the Israeli presence in her land is killing her spirit.

This film succeeds in providing a very nuanced view on the role that contemporary Israeli’s play in all of this. The Defense Minister (aptly named Israel) views Salma’s grove as a threat to his safety. His view of such an innocuous thing as a lemon grove posing a serious threat to the nation of Israel is representative of the geo-political stance that present day Israeli officials have taken in regards to the remaining Palestinian land. The Palestinians have but a fraction of the land that they once inhabited, and very little resources in proportion to the Israelis. Yet, they are still viewed as a very real threat from a strategic standpoint and are increasingly isolated and persecuted. The Defense Minister may have a significant advantage with a guard tower, barbed wire fence, surveillance, and troops stationed around his home, but thinking from his purely strategic stance, he remains unsatisfied and wants to do away with the grove all together.

The reason that I say this film provides a nuanced perspective on the contemporary Israeli’s position is because of the Minister’s wife, Mira. She empathizes with Salma on a more humanistic level. She looks past the rhetoric and political implications and simply sees a sad, poor widow who’s trying to preserve her way of life as much as much as she possibly can. Mira symbolizes the growing descent among many secular Israeli’s who feel the plight of the Palestinians on the basis of their shared humanity. On one hand, Mira wants to appease her husband and do what he says is necessary to maintain their way of life. On the other hand, she can’t help but feel for Salma who has just the same goal in mind. The difference here is that Mira would hardly be giving up much at all, where as Salma would be giving up all she has. It’s certainly the case that many young Israelis in today’s day and age feel that struggle between honoring their nation and their people by adhering to the dominant political rhetoric, and casting political considerations aside in solidarity for their fellow man. The conflict between the Minister and his wife provides an excellent portrayal of this existential struggle.

Another real-world issue highlighted in this film is the Palestinian’s struggle between holding on to what little remains of their old ways, and assimilating to the rise of western culture that has come as a result of their occupation. Salma’s own son lives in Washington D.C and he says to her “Forget the trees and come to America.” But Salma can’t bring herself to let go of the past. The portrait of her late husband sits watch in her house as a constant reminder for Salma to hold on to her past for dear life. The Minister even offers her compensation for the loss of her grove but she still refuses. The compensation is just another example of her being pushed to assimilate to her new world under Israeli control. She adamantly refuses to part with her grove as a sign of defiance.

Salma also struggles with adhering to the old ways when the romance between herself and Ziad begins to come to the forefront. It’s clear that part of her wants to disregard the ways of the past and accept Ziad as a lover. When he comes to visit her in the night, she almost puts her headdress on, but decides not to at the last second. This indicates her desire for something new, and for her Ziad represents a possible escape from the rules and expectations imposed upon her by the old way of life. Men in the community constantly remind her of her obligation to her dead husband and how she would be dishonoring his name by getting involved with the lawyer. Still, she feels a certain kinship with him and secretly desires to be with him. Ultimately, she decides to separate from him entirely after the court hearing and she burns his image away forever.

I’m sure that many Palestinians have struggled with this very issue. The inclination to hold on to the relics of the past seems weaker and weaker as the bleakness of their situation becomes more evident. For many it must seem as though assimilation is the only option, and that there is no place for their old ways in this new world. In the end, Salma does not get her way at all. The political powers that be take her lemon trees from her and leave only sad reminders of what once was. And there she remains, just as the Palestinians who remain in their occupied lands today remain with what little remnants of their past they have left. This is a decidedly sad ending, which is appropriate considering where the issue stands this very day. What was interesting to see was how the Minister faired after the whole ordeal. In the end, he lost his wife, and what was once a pleasant view of an orange grove has been reduced to a bleak view of the wall he wanted all along. I believe that the moral of the story is that policy and rhetoric may serve your practical needs, but adhering to them too much will leave you empty inside. One must recognize our baser humanity and empathize with others, lest they remain in their fortress all alone.