Lemon Tree

The Lemon Tree provides viewers with an excellent portrayal of life’s struggles as a Palestinian woman being oppressed due to an ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The main character, Salma Zidane struggles from tough economic hardships ever since she has become widowed for ten years and her two daughters are married and her son moved to the United States. While she is alone Salma earns her only small form of salary from a lemon grove that her family has occupied for fifty years. However, one of the ironic issues surrounding this lemon grove is that it is located on a line separating Israel from the occupied territories of the West Bank. The Israeli defense minister, Isreal Navon moves into a large house right next to Salma’s lemon grove and immediately initiates a conflict between his elegant home and the orchard. Salma received an official letter notifying her that her grove posses a security threat due to terrorists hiding in the trees and it is a necessity of the military to have the grove diminished. As her grove is fenced in and her precious lemons are dying by the day she begins to take action and argues her case before a military tribunal. The tribunal agrees with the Israeli defense minister and says that the grove is in fact off limits forcing her to have no choice but to argue her case before the Israeli Supreme Court. The extremely interesting aspect of this movie is the fact that the Israeli defense minister’s wife Mira, portrays signs of sorrow and remorse for Salma and attempts to go against her own husband in the defense of Salma’s grove. It is very touching and heartwarming when Mira and Salma begin to form an affectionate human bond between each other all through the fence that has cut of Salma from access to her grove. Mira shares Salma’s sense of personal loneliness because she does not have a healthy relationship with her husband Israel. It is also extremely motivating in the sense that Salma does not give up what she truly believes is