All around me I hear the laughter of children and see their smiling faces as they fly kites. It is hard to believe that just a few hours earlier, over 700 olive trees had been set ablaze. In the village of Burin just outside of Nablus, where settlements encroach on almost every side, flying kites is an act of resistance. This is why Burin holds a kite festival annually for the local community to join together in joy and resistance. This is the 19th kite festival, though the festival has not been held for consecutive years due to circumstances like COVID and settler violence
Ghassan, the organizer of the festival, explained some of the festival’s history when we first arrived. Ghassan had been arrested twice for putting on the kite festival. Just last year, three kites were shot down by Israeli settlers. These instances of settler violence and state repression are not new for Ghassan or the other residents of Burin.
Located in the north of the occupied West Bank in the Nablus region, Burin is home to roughly 3,000 people. Nestled amongst rolling hills and known for its olive production, Burin’s main source of income is agriculture, particularly after Israel revoked Palestinian work permits for inside 48 boundaries in October. Burin is most well-known for its olive production, which occurs around the end of fall. While it is difficult almost every year to harvest their olives, this year many of the villagers were unable to even visit their groves, for fear of being shot by settler-soldiers. Still, Ghassan managed to find some olive oil from a local family for me to buy ….more
