Anointed and Overflowing

In the sun-drenched hills of the Promised Land, olive trees and vineyards have flourished for millennia. As staples of Mediterranean cuisine, their enduring presence has long transcended their role as an ordinary food source. Instead, they have stood as living proof of Israel’s spiritual, historical and cultural identity—surviving persecution and the cycles of exile and return.

But today, Israel’s agriculture faces a modern adversary seeking to purge that proof: the anti-Israel lobby led by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Erasing Israeli History

The BDS movement’s holy grail is to delegitimize Israel—full stop. Led by pro-Palestinian activists, it portrays Israel as an apartheid state which is occupying Palestinian land. Its main strategy? International economic pressure, Palestinian product promotion and aggressive propaganda campaign all aimed at isolating Israel internationally. Its most well-known tactics? Boycotting Israeli products, with Israeli olive oil and wine high on the list of forbidden items.

The BDS movement’s first demand is an end to the Israeli “occupation.” But beneath this aim lies a troubling reality: the movement’s stance implicitly calls for the end of Israel as a Jewish state. If there are no Jews “occupying,” there’s no Israel.

BDS’s agenda and anti-Israel campaigns have created a stage for agricultural warfare in a fight to erase Israel from the landscape. Olive oil, for example, is marketed as a symbol of Palestinian identity, with organizations like the Palestinian Olive Oil Association framing it as a resistance to the Israeli occupation.

But what does the Land itself have to say?

Oil and Wine in Scripture

The record of the Land first lies within Scripture. From altar to table, oil and wine have been flowing through Israel’s core for centuries. The Bible’s earliest texts stress the centrality of oil and wine in Jewish morals, faith, law and national identity. Throughout the Torah (Gen.–Deut.), both crops serve as key instruments in feasts and practices.

For example, in Exodus 30:22–25, God outlines the sacred use of olive oil in anointing priests and kings. The olive tree itself, frequently cited in the psalms, is symbolically aligned with the nation of Israel. And in Deuteronomy 24:20, Scripture commands a layer of ethical responsibility to the cultivation of olive trees as some of their fruit is to be left for the poor to glean.

Vines carry equal weight. Wine is required in Jewish tradition for kiddush (dedication through prayer and blessing over wine performed at the start of the Sabbath meal), weddings, Passover and other sacred events. Each morning, devout Jews pray Psalm 80:8–9: “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.” In Proverbs 3:9–10, wine is a symbol of divine abundance, urging us to honor the Lord with our possessions and promising that as we give generously, God will bless us with “vats overflowing with new wine.”

The biblical record clearly affirms Israel’s agricultural DNA in the Land.

Uncovering a Deep-rooted Legacy

Archaeological discoveries across Israel show that the Land’s connection to olive oil and wine goes beyond the Bible. During the Roman Empire, Israel’s wine and oil were highly valued and widely traded, even reaching Rome itself. Excavations have uncovered countless artifacts at Jewish sites: wine and oil jars at Masada; grape presses from the eighth century BC in Ashdod; and even a wine press from AD 200–500 in a Jewish settlement of Korazim.

Israel’s agricultural legacy was not uninterrupted. During the 12th and 14th centuries, the landscape of wine changed dramatically under Muslim governance. With Islamic law outlawing wine, vineyards were uprooted and winepresses destroyed. Though olive oil production continued, the vine of winemaking was nearly severed.

Jewish Wine in Exile

Despite the Islamic ban, Jewish communities in the Promised Land secretly made small amounts of wine for distribution among families, often at great risk. Halachic (Jewish legal) texts continued to discuss wine’s role, laws and blessings, thus maintaining its spiritual memory.

While in dispersed to the four corners of the world, Jewish communities continued winemaking freely. They safeguarded knowledge of grape cultivation, preservation techniques and even winemaking prayers in the hope of one day restoring the practice in their ancient homeland.