December 20, 2025 Liquid Gold: The Story of Palestinian Olive Oil In Palestine, olive oil is more than a product—it’s a story pressed from the soil, the sun, and the hands of generations. Across the hills of the West Bank, the ancient olive tree stands as a symbol of endurance, hope, and belonging. Every October and November, as the air turns cool and golden, families return to their ancestral lands to harvest olives, turning the harvest into a time of labor, joy, and collective memory. Read More November 6, 2025 Digital Resistance: How Young Palestinians Use Social Media to Preserve Memory In Palestine, memory has always been a form of resistance. Today, it lives not only in embroidery and heritage, but on digital screens across the world. Across Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinian towns inside Israel, a new generation is documenting life, loss, and love in "real- time" — transforming social media into a living archive of survival. Read More September 30, 2025 Points sur l’Actualité du Moyen-Orient « Le Moyen-Orient. Moyen par rapport à quoi ? Orient de quoi ? Le nom de la région est fondé sur une vision eurocentrée du monde, et cette région a été façonnée par un regard européen ». Tels sont les premiers mots figurant dans le manifeste de la géostratégie publié par Tim Marshall, spécialiste britannique des relations internationales. Prisonnier de la géographie, comme le suggère le titre de son œuvre, le Moyen-Orient l’est aussi de ses frontières tracées au gré des intérêts européens, qui l’ont enfermé dans une spirale de haines et de tensions sans fin. Read More March 31, 2025 La cause palestinienne, un nouveau souffle pour le panarabisme? Le Sommet arabe du 4 mars semblerait révéler une exception à une longue période de quasi-désengagement. Ce rassemblement pourrait-il marquer une réaffirmation de la solidarité arabe et un regain d'intérêt pour les aspirations nationales palestiniennes? Le plan adopté pourrait en effet, potentiellement, révéler un retour de la lutte des pays arabes pour la cause palestinienne. Read More January 31, 2025 Repenser l’histoire de la guerre civile libanaise L’absence de mémoire collective divise; chaque communauté se retrouve attachée à sa propre version du passé. Alors, quelle histoire raconter? Comment peut-on espérer construire un futur partagé lorsque les fractures du passé nous maintiennent encore captifs? Read More December 31, 2024 Censorship Concerns in Turkish Media The government’s control over media is seen as a way to shape public opinion in regard to their own agendas, protect their own interests and prevent opposing views from gaining popularity. Read More December 31, 2024 Loin des yeux, près du coeur: les Libanais de la diaspora face au chaos On quitte rarement le Liban, on s’en sépare, souvent contre sa volonté. Et pourtant, dans cette séparation, une étrange alchimie se crée: plus le pays sombre dans le chaos, plus il semble s’effondrer sous les poids du temps et de la guerre, et plus l’attachement et le patriotisme de ses enfants, même à l’autre bout du monde, se fait viscéral. Ce phénomène est particulièrement visible parmi les étudiants libanais en France, pour qui ce patriotisme se nourrit de la résistance face à un contexte tendu, marqué par les tensions et les conflits internes. Read More November 30, 2024 Athenian Architecture and Urban Policy: Diffuse (Dis)Organization Or A New Sense of Cohesion? Concrete, tall and monotonous, these “famous postwar apartment blocks” have for better or for worse forged Athens’ contemporary architectural identity, usually conveying a feeling of indifference or discontent to most of its residents. With their appearance dating back to the early twentieth century, their preponderance and widespread development in the following decades is intrinsically tied to the city’s historic path and the occurrence of various major events such as growing demographic pressures and the end of the military junta in 1974. Read More November 30, 2024 EU-Tunisia Deal: Migration Control at the Cost of Human Rights? The EU’s ongoing partnerships with authoritarian regimes, such as Tunisia, to control migration raises crucial concerns about the ethics and long-term efficacy of such agreements. While these arrangements may offer short-term containment, they fail to address the systemic drivers of migration, such as political repression, economic instability and environmental degradation, prevalent in many MENA countries. Read More September 30, 2024 Libya: Victim of a Double Crisis While many, particularly in the political arena, view the disaster as purely natural, experts point to human factors such as corruption, poor infrastructure maintenance and chronic conflicts that have left the country unprepared for events like Storm Daniel. This disaster highlights how human irresponsibility in two key areas—climate change and political instability—has compounded the crisis. Read More September 30, 2024 Najib Mikati, un milliardaire dans le marécage du Grand Sérail Najib Mikati incarne un Liban corrompu et à bout de souffle. Le passé et le présent du pays se sont fait avec lui, mais le futur qu’espèrent nombre de libanais ne pourra se réaliser que lorsque Najib Mikati et toute la classe politique qu’il représente seront relégués au musée. De nouveaux visages sur scène sont attendus pour la nouvelle pièce à écrire. Read More September 30, 2024 Women in Sudan Caught in Conflict When conflicts arise, the most vulnerable members of society—women and children—are impacted disproportionally. As a global society, global organizations such as the United Nations need to ensure that every person within the Sudanese community is protected and their rights are upheld during such conflicts. Read More September 30, 2024 Terrorism & Climate Change: A Collective Effort To Further Destabilize West Africa? When thinking about global warming, one rarely associates it with terrorism. Nevertheless, when looking at the aims of terrorist organizations and the potential power and influence that climate change predisposes them to have in certain regions of the world, we understand both the disparity of the situation and the urgent need for it to change. Read More April 30, 2024 L'implication du Yémen dans la guerre de Gaza : l'essor des houthis et la dynamique régionale Dans le contexte du conflit de Gaza entre Israël et le Hamas, le Yémen, déjà en proie à ses propres troubles internes, se trouve de plus en plus impliqué dans des complexités régionales, principalement orchestrées par le mouvement houthis montant. Read More April 30, 2024 Armenia: The EU As a Destination? Ever since the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia has understood that it is surrounded by dangerous neighbors. Read More March 31, 2024 Constructing a Technocratic Government in Post-War Gaza In the West Bank and Gaza, where de facto democracy has long been out of the question and the destructive implications of war continue to devastate, a technocracy may be the only viable solution to address the needs of a population in ruins. Read More March 30, 2024 L’industrie cinématographique en Arabie saoudite Entre des réformes politiques en faveur du droit des femmes tels que le droit de conduire et le droit à l'obtention d’un passeport et au voyage à l'international sans autorisation d’un parent masculin et les réformes culturelles tel que l'accès au cinéma et la production de films, le pays semble changer radicalement. Read More March 30, 2024 Iranian Elections: What Messages Can Be Understood? The victory of the current regime, which was unsurprising for everyone, holds several messages. However, its validity and democratic facade must be taken with a pinch of salt. Read More March 30, 2024 In The Lead-Up to Local Elections, Istanbul’s Kurdish Voters in Spotlight Until now, Kurdish voters have gritted their teeth and arguably voted against their best interest for the sake of democracy, and it seems that we must now imagine a world where they do not. Read More February 29, 2024 Changing Face of Foreign Correspondence as Journalist Deaths Skyrocket While news organizations grapple with industry shifts due to globalization and new technologies, journalists face more imminent danger while reporting conflict than ever. Read More

The Menton Times is the independent student newspaper of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Menton campus. There is a woman in Somalia Feature: Amnesty Menton All of these realities are indisputable, and for many women, especially those living in displacement camps, they shape everyday life. Yet this framing, while alarmingly accurate, is incomplete: it captures what is done to these women, not how they respond to it. It reduces their lived experience to suffering alone, overlooking the many forms of agency they cling to, their organization and leadership that persist even in the most fragile of conditions. This Week @ The Menton Times The Question of Palestine as a Feminist Issue Les périls de la culture compétitive dans l’éducation The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World التعليم في تونس: بين المساواة المنشودة والواقع الجندري في الصفوف الدراسية Menton's Senior Citizens Won't Bite: Go Talk to Them! Le True crime: quand l’horreur devient divertissement Eulogy to Joy The Celebration of Oppression “Je parle donc je suis”: la langue, vecteur d’identité ? « C'est dans et par le langage que l’homme se constitue comme sujet » affirme Emile Benveniste, linguiste français d’origine syrienne. Le langage est ainsi ce qui nous permet de nous poser comme sujet parlant. On peut prolonger cette idée: si le langage nous permet de dire « je », il nous permet de nous raconter et de construire notre identité. Dans cette optique, le langage marque l’acte fondateur de notre naissance au monde. التعليم في تونس: بين المساواة المنشودة والواقع الجندري في الصفوف الدراسية The Reinvention of Coachella Since the beginning of the year, 2026 has been dubbed “the new 2016” across various social media platforms. Young people online seem to be yearning for a resurgence of how life was ten years ago. The rose-tinted social media filter has been revived and 2016 pop music is having its moment, with Zara Larsson’s hit “Lush Life” reentering the Billboard’s Top 100 for the first time in years. But while Coachella 2026 may have looked like Coachella 2016, it was fundamentally very different. We Watch, We Feel, We Scroll: Susan Sontag’s ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ and the War in Iran Images emerge from Iran with unsettling regularity: mothers mourning their children, bodies of Iranian martyrs killed by the IRGC during the crackdown in black bags, and quasi-apocalyptic scenes of explosions in Tehran. And then, just as quickly, they disappear from collective attention. Not because the suffering ends, but because the audience moves on. Être élève à SciencesPo quand son pays est en guerre Interview with Lenka Králová for the International Trans Day of Visibility Feature: Menton Loves Lenka is a trans woman, an activist, a parent, a podcaster with two shows called V Tranzu and TLK–Talkshow with Lenka Králová, a person with an incredible sense of fashion, an artist, former IT developer and a new member of the Czech Pirate Party. Interview with Lenka Králová for the International Trans Day of Visibility Feature: Menton Loves The Question of Palestine as a Feminist Issue Feature: Feminist Union Lenka is a trans woman, an activist, a parent, a podcaster with two shows called V Tranzu and TLK–Talkshow with Lenka Králová, a person with an incredible sense of fashion, an artist, former IT developer and a new member of the Czech Pirate Party. Palestine is often discussed as a geopolitical conflict. Yet it is fundamentally a feminist issue. Palestinian women face violence due to the genocide Israel is committing , seen through reproductive violence and healthcare deprivation. This leads Palestinian women to be disproportionately affected by different forms of violence fundamentally shaped by the occupation. The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World War is war. No matter when it starts, where it is or who ends up carrying its weight. I’m usually the first to argue that suffering should never be compared, but in the cases of Sudan and Yemen, comparison becomes almost unavoidable. Not to decide who suffers more nor to rank tragedies, but to confront the world’s selective outrage and the chilling apathetic silence that allows some wars to disappear from collective memory. The Celebration of Oppression To be Algerian-French means learning about your history through the voice of the colonizer. And it is more often than not immensely glorified. “When They Tell You to Sing, You Just Sing.”: The Khmer Rouge’s Musical Manipulation of Cambodian Society “If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Points sur l’Actualité du Moyen-Orient « Le Moyen-Orient. Moyen par rapport à quoi ? Orient de quoi ? Le nom de la région est fondé sur une vision eurocentrée du monde, et cette région a été façonnée par un regard européen ». Tels sont les premiers mots figurant dans le manifeste de la géostratégie publié par Tim Marshall, spécialiste britannique des relations internationales. Prisonnier de la géographie, comme le suggère le titre de son œuvre, le Moyen-Orient l’est aussi de ses frontières tracées au gré des intérêts européens, qui l’ont enfermé dans une spirale de haines et de tensions sans fin. Theres No Place Like Home I have always felt that way because “home”, to me, has always been a patchwork. There’s the place you were born, the one you grew up in, the countries tied to your heritage, and now a campus far away from everything you ever knew. Each one of them feels like “home,” but then again none of them quite do. They overlap and argue with each other—they coexist like siblings fighting over the bigger room. Singing through Grief – Collective Memory through Music Music has a strange sort of power; it can outlive the moments it was originally made for. You’ll Never Walk Alone has transcended Liverpool. Celtic fans sing it in Scotland, as well as Dortmund fans in Germany. It’s been sung in times of crisis—after terrorist attacks, during the pandemic and other acts of remembrance. But it will forever belong to Hillsborough first. It is sacred in the way a national anthem can become sacred, or a funeral hymn. You’ll Never Walk Alone began as a ballad of hope and then a cry for justice. Vlogging Live From Kabul: The Insights and Absurdities of YouTube Conflict Tourism In the past few years, an increasing number of intrepid content creators are documenting their journeys to places of conflict. They acquire rare visas, hire local tour guides, and point iPhone cameras through the streets as they seek to capture the ‘real’ version of these countries—places whose very essence is often reduced to fearful headlines and apocalyptic imagery. This phenomenon, known as conflict tourism, ranges from visiting historically troubled areas to entering zones of active conflict, and has taken on an entirely new significance in the age of vlogging.

In Palestine, olive oil is more than a product—it’s a story pressed from the soil, the sun, and the hands of generations. Across the hills of the West Bank, the ancient olive tree stands as a symbol of endurance, hope, and belonging. Every October and November, as the air turns cool and golden, families return to their ancestral lands to harvest olives, turning the harvest into a time of labor, joy, and collective memory. < Back Liquid Gold: The Story of Palestinian Olive Oil Mariam Mahamid December 20, 2025 In Palestine, olive oil is more than a product—it’s a story pressed from the soil, the sun, and the hands of generations. Across the hills of the West Bank, the ancient olive tree stands as a symbol of endurance, hope, and belonging. Every October and November, as the air turns cool and golden, families return to their ancestral lands to harvest olives, turning the harvest into a time of labor, joy, and collective memory. My mother’s village, Deir Ghassaneh , one of the villages of Ramallah , is famous for its olive groves. Every year, my grandfather would wake us before sunrise to pick olives from our family’s trees. We would spread wide nets under the branches, climb up the ladders, and gently beat the branches with sticks until the olives fell like soft rain. The sound of olives hitting the nets created a rhythm—soft, steady, and full of memory. When the olives were crushed at the village press, the first oil that flowed was vibrant green, almost glowing, and its taste burned slightly on the tongue, a sign of purity and freshness. For Palestinians, the olive tree is not just agriculture—it is ancestry. In Arabic poetry and proverbs, the tree symbolizes patience, strength, and peace. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is said to have called olive oil "a blessed oil." Across the region, it lights lamps, heals wounds, and seasons bread. In every Palestinian home, you will find a glass bottle of oil kept with reverence—often from the family’s own trees. According to a 2019 study by Brito et al. , olive trees demonstrate remarkable tolerance to drought conditions by activating biological mechanisms that allow them to “store resilience in their wood,” a trait that has made them enduring symbols across Mediterranean cultures. During the olive harvest season, Palestinian villages come alive with a rhythm that blends labor and joy. Families wake up before sunrise, carrying woven baskets and metal rakes to the groves. The air smells of earth and crushed olives. Laughter carries throughout the hills as stories, gossip and folk songs fill the day. The harvest isn’t only about collecting fruit—it’s a moment of community renewal, where generations work side by side and children learn the meaning of patience and belonging. As described in This Week in Palestine , "olive picking is a social and cultural ritual where families come together to share food, sing, and celebrate their connection to the land." In some villages, these same traditions have continued for centuries, beneath trees that have stood since biblical times. Families harvesting olives in early 1900s Palestine—men, women, and children working beneath the same ancient trees that still bear fruit today. (Photo: Library of Congress ) Some of Palestine’s oldest olive trees—many over two thousand years old—still stand as living witnesses to history. In Jerusalem, farmers and caretakers have preserved these trees for generations, pruning and nurturing them through war, drought and displacement. Their survival is more than biological; it’s symbolic. According to Olive Oil Times , scientific analyses confirmed that the ancient olive trees in Jerusalem’s Garden of Gethsemane are around two millennia old and still capable of producing fruit today. Each trunk carries the memory of the land, its grooves etched by time and its roots reaching deep into the soil—a testament to endurance and belonging. Ancient olive trees in Jerusalem’s Garden of Gethsemane—cared for by Franciscan monks, living witnesses to Palestine’s deep-rooted heritage. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons ) Olive oil sits at the heart of Palestinian cuisine—a symbol of both flavor and identity. A drizzle of oil completes nearly every dish: from musakhan (a traditional Palestinian meal of chicken, onions, sumac, and bread soaked in olive oil), to maqluba (an upside-down rice and vegetable dish), to za‘atar (a thyme, sesame, and sumac mix) spread over taboon bread (clay-oven bread). It flavors both savory and sweet dishes and even acts as a natural preservative. During the harvest season, families gather to share meals under the olive trees—moments that blend food, memory, and togetherness. As reported by Al Jazeera , such gatherings reflect not only agricultural labor but an act of cultural preservation—each olive picked, pressed, and shared becomes a story of belonging. After the harvest, farmers trim the trees to keep them healthy for future seasons ( Library of Congress ). The olive tree is generous but demanding—it requires care, time and patience. In many villages, presses work day and night, their stone wheels grinding fruit that families have gathered from dawn until dusk. Every drop counts. But these groves face growing threats. According to B’Tselem , settler violence has led to the destruction of tens of thousands of Palestinian olive trees over the past decade, with attacks intensifying during peak harvest months. These losses are not just agricultural—they represent the erasure of memory, livelihood, and history for thousands of families. According to The Polis Project , olive trees have become "sites of resistance," where colonization, dispossession and identity intersect. Uprooting an olive tree is not just ecological destruction—it’s cultural erasure. During each harvest season, hundreds of incidents of settler attacks and arson are reported. A 2025 Mongabay investigation documented how farmers across Gaza and the West Bank continue to salvage what they can from burned or fenced-off groves. Another powerful symbol of Palestine’s relationship with the olive tree is Mahfouza Shtayyeh, known across social media as "the Olive Lady." Her iconic photograph—taken two decades ago—shows her holding tightly to an olive tree in her village, Salem, near Nablus. Recently, the media group Hind’s Call visited her to mark the 20th anniversary of the image, meeting her up close and documenting the story behind her enduring presence and strength. During the interview, she explains that the tree she held onto had been planted by her father and that she continued to return to protect it whenever settlers approached the grove. Her words in the video are simple but unforgettable: "The tree has stood with us through everything. How can I leave it now?" Her story resonated across the region because it reflects something universal: love, memory, and the refusal to let the land be erased. In the village of Deir Ghassaneh, locals say the olive tree is like a member of the family—when one is lost, it is mourned. Yet even after fires, people return to replant. Organizations like Land of Canaan Foundation are working to restore uprooted groves through the Trees for Life Project , giving farmers new saplings and the means to rebuild their livelihoods. Every tree replanted is both an act of healing and a message of defiance. Beyond symbolism, olive oil is a vital part of Palestine’s economy. Before restrictions on export began, it represented up to 15% of agricultural income in some West Bank regions. Palestinian olive oil is sought after worldwide for its purity and low acidity, and small cooperatives have been forming to promote sustainable farming. According to Mongabay , some producers are now using solar-powered presses to protect the environment and reduce costs. The olive tree is also deeply spiritual. In Palestinian Christian and Muslim traditions, it is a sacred plant—mentioned in the Qur’an and the Bible. Olive oil lights church lamps and mosque lanterns; it blesses weddings, newborns, and even the dead. To many Palestinians, it embodies the connection between heaven and earth. Today, despite barriers, checkpoints and burning groves, Palestinians continue to press olives and pour oil into glass bottles with handwritten labels. Some jars are sent abroad to relatives; others are kept for family meals that bring everyone together around the table. Projects like Trees for Life and local presses in Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin show that the story of the olive tree is still being written—in every harvest, every meal, and every act of care. Olive oil remains what Palestinians call "liquid "gold"—not only for its color or taste, but for what it represents: resilience, continuity and identity. From the terraces of Deir Ghassaneh to the ancient gardens of Jerusalem, the story of olive oil is the story of Palestine itself—rooted in endurance, nourished by memory and carried forward by hands that refuse to let go. Photo Source: American Colony (Jerusalem), Wikimedia Commons