By Arthur Lyons
Voice of Europe
Days after video footage surfaced showing groups of migrant men ignoring social distancing measures
and ridiculing the police officers trying
to enforce them, illegal migrants from the Moria camp on the Greek island have
struck again, chopping down 5,000 olive trees.
The destruction of
these olive trees, which can take 65 to 80 years to reach stable yields, is
being viewed as an assault on Greek history, culture, and identity, as well as
an attack against the island’s local economy, the Greek City Times reports.
The olive tree is one
of the most ubiquitous symbols in Greece and classical Western civilization.
Among other things, to the ancient Greeks, the olive branch served as a symbol
of Olympic ideals. It’s for this reason that medalists of the Olympic Games
were given “kotinos” – wreaths made of olive branches.
For the ancient Greeks, the olive tree was also viewed as a
symbol of peace, wisdom, fertility, and victory, and was believed to have been
a gift from Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.
The island’s local
economy will suffer for years to come as a result of the destruction of these
decades-old olive trees. Each year, olive exports contribute nearly 650 million
euros to Greece’s national economy.
The chopping down of the olive trees will inevitably escalate
tensions – which have already been boiling over for months now –between local
Greeks and the illegal migrants.
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