Transcript: PLANTS ARE POLITICAL on the Sweetness of Watermelon and Prickly Pear S1:3
***This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Ayana Young Hi For The Wild, it’s Ayana. Today, we’re bringing you a new series made in collaboration with Olive Odyssey, a Palestinian olive oil brand that serves as a gateway for Palestinian farmers to connect with people around the world and tell their story through the foods they produce. In this series you’ll hear from Aya Gazawi Faour, Olive Odyssey’s co-founder, about plants indigenous to the Palestinian landscape and their deep ties to culture, resistance, and enduring lifeways.
Amid ongoing Israeli occupation and violence against Palestinians, we hope this series serves as a reminder of not only the lifeblood of Palestinian land, but also of the sacredness of land itself and all the life it holds. Plants Are Political calls on us to consider the way landscapes, food ways, and connection to the earth are intertwined with systems of oppression and movements of resistance. May this be an invitation to reflect on the central role land and the more-than-human world plays in movements for justice everywhere.
In this episode, we focus on the sweetness of watermelon and prickly pear. Thank you for listening.
Ayana Young Okay, so much more to talk about there, but I do also want to be able to discuss watermelon and prickly pear. And so, I'd love to get into your relationship to watermelon and prickly pear. Could tell us about your relationship with these plants and the seasonality of them and how you experience them in the cycles of the year?
Aya Gazawi Faour For watermelon, really, it's a symbol of Palestine. I think today, everybody knows about the use of watermelon as a symbol for Palestine. After the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of even 48 in 1967 the Israeli government banned the raising of Palestinian flag. And during this time, people were trying to display the Palestinian flag in different ways than using the flag. I just learned recently that people would hang their clothes outside of the house, so they would do green pants or red shirts, white shirts, and black shirts. And, you know, this is the way you would show the flag in your home. So people would try and display the flag in different ways and, so, one of the ways was the watermelon having all of the colors of the flag. It became a flag in a way.
And today, I think people are carrying a watermelon around in protests, and, you know, around their necks, some a lot of people on their bodies. And you know, it's a reminder, no matter what you do to suppress resistance or to not allow people to express their love for their land, I think people will always find ways to to express their feelings and thoughts and love for land.
Ayana Young Okay, so we talked a little bit about watermelon as a symbol, and I am wanting to read this quote by Al Jazeera. It says, "Following the 1967 war when Israel seized control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and annexed East Jerusalem, the government banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied territory. Although the flag has not always been banned by law, the watermelon caught on as a symbol of resistance. It appears in art, shirts, graffiti, posters, and on the ubiquitous watermelon emoji on social media." And, yeah, I'm wondering if you can maybe discuss how nature can help us and our resistance efforts, whether it be a symbol or sustenance or inspiration?
Aya Gazawi Faour Yeah, I think for here, like we've talked about the olive tree, we've talked about the zaatar, and here you see the connection to this fruit that is really a symbolic connection. Although there's a whole different story about growing the watermelon here in Palestine and not having enough water in the West Bank and in Gaza, but really, I think one of the one of the ways people today are resistant is a movement that is emerging as an agricultural movement that is focused on food sovereignty. And this movement is all about plants. You know, finding liberation and freedom in growing plants.
I think, in every aspect of the colonized, plants are a big part of the decolonization and achieving liberation, whether it's for food, as symbols, or emotional connection to these plants. Yeah, I think plants and nature play a huge part in the movement for liberation in Palestine.
Ayana Young And what is your relationship with prickly pear? I don't see that used as a symbol, obviously, in the way watermelon has, but I know you've mentioned that it's also a really important fruit.
Aya Gazawi Faour Yeah, so prickly pear comes to Palestine from Mexico. So we've learned from the Indigenous too. We brought it here, really because we've discovered about the cochineal and using this insect to make color. And you know, you use this color to paint fabric or food. And so, this is something that the Natives here learned from the Natives there, and brought it here.
We planted it in a lot of the villages, and we use the plant also as a divider, you know, to protect lived in small villages and small towns and small communities. So they would surround themselves with the prickly pear, and this way animals wouldn't come into the villages and maybe eat the animals that they've grown or the plants that they've grown. Today, in 48 when over 500 Palestinian towns and villages were demolished and ethnically cleansed, all of these villages, most of them were destroyed, and all the buildings were destroyed. In many villages, you can't see anything other than scattered stones that you know for most people, they would look just like normal scattered stones. But what always tells you that there was a Palestinian village or town is the prickly pear because you see it there. And this is one way where you walk around these huge forests that they've planted of pine trees—that one of the reasons they planted it is to hide all of the villages that were under, but you still see the prickly pear.
The prickly pear has become...And it was also in Arabic, it's called sabr, which means patience. You know, when you see it, you know there was a village here. It has become a symbol for Palestinians for being patient because the plant is also called sabr because, you know, it can go through the whole summer without water, and it will still hold on and grow. And so, it became also a symbol for Palestinian resistance and endurance, in a way.
And you see it in a lot of Palestinian art. And yeah, maybe I think the watermelon today is known around the world and is more famous, but within Palestine, I would probably say that prickly pear is a more significant symbol, really.
Ayana Young That's really interesting. Yeah, I like imagining seeing them and how they have followed the people there. But did you mention the uses of prickly pear, and what kind of relationship do you have with it?
Aya Gazawi Faour Yeah, we, we actually, we eat the fruit itself. It's actually now in season. People look forward to the season. The fruit is very sweet, and so this is what we usually eat—the fruit.
Back in the day, we used to use the insect that would grow on the prickly pear to make color. You would dry it and then crush it and then use it to make to dye fabric. So a lot of people here in Palestine today still do that to revive this ancient practice that we've learned from other Indigenous communities. And I'm learning—not only me. I think a lot of people are learning that you can actually eat the whole plant and it's really, really good. So I've been eating that because our followers from Mexico have given me a lot of different recipes. I've been eating the whole plant.
Ayana Young That sounds really delicious. I feel like I've had it once before, but it's reminding me of the sweetness.
Aya, this has been such an incredible conversation. So I just want to give you the floor to see if there's anything else you feel like you really want to share in this moment before we wrap up this really beautiful conversation.
Aya Gazawi Faour Honestly, first of all, I really want to thank you for this opportunity to have this conversation. It's been really amazing for anyone listening. If there's one thing that I could not say enough times, I think that connection to the land and knowing the plants that surround you and knowing what food your ancestor ate and trying to go back there is probably one of the most important things that we can do as resistance today.
Most people, when they go out to nature, they feel like they're going outside of their home, and they're visiting in nature, and they're traveling in nature. And this feeling is because we have no idea what are the plants that are surrounding us. What is the land that is around us? Once we learn more and more about the plants, what to forage, what to not forage, what's the name of the plants, the use of the plants, how to use it for medicine, what our ancestors used it for…The moment, we know more and more about the land, once we go outside of our cities or villages or towns and go into nature, we would feel like we're going back home. And, once we feel like we're going back home when we're in nature, I feel like it would be much easier for us to be able to connect to the humans that are around us and to build communities.
And I think the connection to land, no matter where it is, once you're connected to the land, once you're connected to the plants, you can't hate a fellow human anymore. This disconnect that we've built around ourselves, this wouldn't exist anymore. And, you know, we would understand that just like plants, we are supposed to live a communal life—unlike what most of us are living today. So, I don't know, just go out and learn more about your plants and organize and resist and protest and boycott.
Ayana Young Aya, thank you so much. And yeah, I'm really appreciative of you and your connection to the natural world, it really shines through your words.
Aya Gazawi Faour Thank you really, Ayana, this was absolutely great. Thank you for this.
Ayana Young Oh yes, I'm happy you feel that way. I do too.
Victoria Pham Thank you for listening to this episode of Plants Are Political, a collaboration with Olive Odyssey. For The Wild is created by Ayana Young, Erica Ekrem, Julia Jackson, and Victoria Pham. Music for this series is by Doe Paoro, with this episode featuring the tracks “Living Through Collapse” and “For All the Generations.”
We extend deep gratitude to Aya from Olive Odyssey for their generosity and guidance in the groves. In these lands, where plants stand as witnesses to both heritage and struggle, we honour the enduring resistance and solidarity of the Palestinian people whose care for the land continues to inspire movements for justice and liberation everywhere.
For more information, you can visit our website at www.forthewild.world where you can discover more details about Olive Odyssey in the episode description. Thank you for listening.
Credits
This transcript was brought to you by For The Wild.
©2025 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted by any means without written permission from For The Wild and Olive Odyssey.