Olympia Joins International Kite Festival to Resist Israeli Occupation in the West Bank
In the face of brutal Israeli occupation, Palestinians in Burin have organized an annual festival of resistance, flying kites to demonstrate their steadfastness. This year Olympia joined!
by Nicholas Kohnen and Michelle Ryder
On a sunny summer Sunday afternoon, some 25 Olympia families gathered near the Heritage Park Fountain to build, decorate, and fly kites alongside organizers across the world to show solidarity with Palestinians facing settler violence in the West Bank.
Laughter mingled with the sounds of classic Arabic music as bubbles floated past smiling faces, and children ran freely, compelling their kites to take to the skies. It was an afternoon of deliberate celebration and unbridled joy, part of an act of global solidarity coinciding with the 13th annual Burin Kite Festival.
Burin is a small village in Palestine, located just south of Nablus in the West Bank. Since 1967, Burin and the rest of the West Bank have been under continuous Israeli military occupation. The 4,000 Palestinians who live in and around Burin face constant threats, intimidation, and property destruction at the hands of the Israeli settlers, supported by the Israeli military. Three Israeli settlements have expropriated large chunks of Burin, and two additional Israeli outposts have recently been established, only awaiting authorization from the Israeli government to legitimize further theft of Palestinian territory. More than 20,000 olive trees stewarded by the people of Burin have been burned, poisoned, or cut down by Israeli settlers since 2004, according to Ghassan Najjar, the founder of the Burin Land & Farming Cooperative and organizer of the Kite Festival in Burin.
“To be in Burin as a child, it makes you bigger than your age,” Ghassan said in a documentary about the 2024 festival. This is why he saw the act of flying a kite and spending care-free time in the hills around Burin as so critical for his community. While the initial impulse for organizing this festival was focused on the children of Burin, Ghassan’s imprisonment by the Israeli military in 2014 led him to consider the inherently political and revolutionary aspects of this small act of resistance. Following that arrest, Ghassan began extending an invitation to children in refugee camps across the West Bank, demonstrating that, as he said in a recent interview with the Green Olive Collective, “the Palestinians are one people, and we are here, we will not leave our land.”
In the following years, more than 20 volunteers have been arrested in Burin for supporting the festival. Every year, when the kites take to the sky, Israeli settlers fire weapons at them. In 2024, settlers set fire to at least 600 olive trees immediately prior to the start of the festival. But to Ghassan, these attempts to discourage and intimidate festival-goers only re-emphasize the futility of the settler position:
“This is our land, this is our sky. Even if you kill us and don’t like us to fly, out kite will fly ... When you see the settlers burning trees, and poisoning the trees, and cutting the trees, that’s making sure that this is not their land. If god gave them this land, why are [they] burning and poisoning the soil and poisoning the trees?”
Fortunately, there are organizations that defend Ghassan’s vision and share it with the world. Raphael Mimoun and Brandon Tonner-Connolly documented the 2024 kite festival. They were there as members of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, in solidarity with Palestinian resistance and to provide a protective presence. When international or Israeli observers are present, settlers and the Israeli military are less likely to employ overt violence against Palestinians.
The Green Olive Collective has worked to promote festivals in solidarity with the one in Burin as a means of raising awareness and also fundraising for materials and food to ensure that the children in Burin and across the West Bank can, at least for one day, enjoy themselves and live the carefree life that many of us take for granted. This is reflected in how Ghassan conceives of the festival today. As he sees it, “the problem is not just with the Zionist occupation [of Palestine], the problem is also with capitalism, which is the umbrella for the occupation.”
In Olympia we enjoyed the spectacular creativity of our children, free from interruption or harassment. Six days later, in Burin, an hour before their kite festival was to begin, five military jeeps stormed the community. Fortunately, Burin residents and festival-goers were able to dispel the attacks and avoid violence and disruption. Despite the constant threats and oppression of the Israeli military and settlers, as the Green Olive Collective recounts, the 13th Annual Burin Kite Festival was a great success:
“The hills of Burin were brimming with children as they frolicked up the hillsides, reached for the heavens, taught guests to dance Palestinian dakbe, and were lifted up by their parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and the whole community,” said Erez Bleicher, the Green Olive Collective Advocacy and Membership Director. “Children from the refugee camps in Balata and Tulkarm joined with friends from Madama, Huwara, Iraw Burin, and other nearby villages as the sun descended over hundreds of kites still soaring kilometers above the reach of settlers, soldiers, or a system designed to contain their smiles.”
Nicholas and Michelle are on the Coordinating committee of Palestine Action South Sound (PASS). PASS meets the first Monday of every month, from 7-9 PM, at the YWCA Friendship Hall, 220 Union Ave SE, Olympia, WA, 98501.