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Salah Abu Ali’s tree was producing fruit long before the Abrahamic religions were born, but is at risk of being destroyed in the push for land

In 2011, Abu Ali’s land was divided in two by the construction of the wall, meaning he can no longer harvest his olive trees on the Israeli side without a significant detour. He relies on the goodwill of soldiers to let him across during the harvest season, something that is not always in ready supply. “It’s a nightmare,” he said,

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George Grylls, al-Walaja

In the West Bank village of al-Walaja, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, there is a tree that is older than any of the Abrahamic religions.

When Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, the olive on Salah Abu Ali’s farm had been producing fruit for almost two millennia.

Three thousand years of rain, wind and drought had failed to kill it by the time of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And when the prophet Muhammad was said to be first visited by an angel in Arabia in AD610, the tree had long been at the centre of various beliefs held by Semitic-speaking peoplesThe tree has survived droughts, earthquakes and wars but is under threat from encroaching settlements

In 2010, Japanese and Italian scientists carbon-dated the al-Badawi tree to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, which would make it the second oldest olive in the world after a grove in northern Lebanon. Only its uppermost branches are visible, and the roots are thought to run up to 25m beneath the ground, fusing into a trunk somewhere below the surface.

But despite its longevity, the al-Badawi tree is at risk. For more than a decade, it has been confronted by the encroaching fence of a settlers’ road.

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