New joint Israeli-Palestinian olive oil brand launched
The olive is one of the oldest cultivated trees of the Levant, and for the peoples who live there it is common ground in the most literal sense — the same tree, the same harvest, the same food. Every so often that common ground is bottled deliberately, as jointly made oil.
Long before modern borders, the hills of the eastern Mediterranean were olive country. The tree has grown here for thousands of years, and for the communities across the region — Palestinian, Israeli, Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian — the olive and its oil are a shared inheritance: the same autumn harvest, the same pressing, the same central place at the table. From time to time that shared crop is turned into a deliberate shared project, with growers and producers on different sides of a divide bottling a single oil together and selling it as a gesture as much as a product.
An older kind of common ground
These joint-oil ventures come and go, and it would be naive to overstate what a bottle can do. But they rest on something real and ancient: the olive genuinely is common to everyone here. The knowledge of when to pick, how to cure, how to press is shared across communities that agree on little else. A joint oil simply makes visible a fact that predates the conflict by millennia — that this is one agricultural culture, not two.
The oil itself
The classic olive of the southern Levant is the Souri (also called Suri), an ancient, hardy, drought-tolerant variety grown for both oil and table, giving a robust, green, often bitter and peppery oil high in the polyphenols that mark a fresh, well-made pressing. Nabali is another regional mainstay. These are not commercial New-World hybrids but old landrace trees, some of them centuries old, and the oil reflects it: rustic, strong, deeply flavoured, made much as it has been for generations.
Buying regional oil honestly
If you want to taste the oil of this region, look for single-origin bottles that name the variety and the grower, and treat provenance claims on the front label with the same healthy scepticism you would anywhere — the words on the front are not always the whole story. A good Levantine oil is worth seeking out on its own merits: it is some of the most characterful, traditional oil in the Mediterranean, and buying it directly supports the small growers who keep those old groves alive.
| Region | The Levant / eastern Mediterranean |
|---|---|
| Antiquity | Cultivated for thousands of years |
| Classic varieties | Souri (Suri), Nabali |
| Style | Robust, green, peppery, high-polyphenol |
| Harvest | Autumn |
| Cultural role | Shared crop, food and symbol across communities |
Seeking out Levantine oil
- Look for single-origin oil that names the variety (Souri, Nabali) and the grower.
- Expect a robust, green, peppery style — these are old landrace trees, not mild modern hybrids.
- Buy on stated provenance and harvest date, not on a hopeful front-label story.
- Buying direct supports small growers keeping ancient groves in production.
Olives of the Levant: common questions
Is the olive really shared across the region?
Yes — it has been cultivated across the eastern Mediterranean for thousands of years and is a common crop, food and symbol for all the peoples who live there.
What is the classic olive of the southern Levant?
The Souri, an ancient, drought-hardy dual-purpose variety giving a robust, green, peppery oil, alongside the Nabali.
What do joint Israeli-Palestinian oils represent?
They are occasional collaborative projects bottling oil made by producers on both sides — as much a gesture of shared heritage as a commercial product.
What does Levantine olive oil taste like?
Typically robust, green and peppery, with high polyphenols — a rustic, strongly flavoured, traditional style from old landrace trees.
How should I buy it?
Choose single-origin bottles naming the variety and grower, with a clear harvest date, and judge provenance claims with normal scepticism.
Do not buy a regional oil for the story on the label — buy it for what is in the bottle. The Levant makes some of the oldest, most characterful oil in the Mediterranean, from landrace trees that predate every modern brand, and a good Souri needs no political framing to earn its place. Look for the variety, the grower and the harvest date, support the small producers directly, and let the oil speak. The shared harvest is the real point; the marketing is not.
Drawn from the olive heritage of the Levant and its classic Souri and Nabali varieties.