CURTAIN CLOSES ON HOLY TREE : ABRAHAM LINKED TO WEST BANK OAK.

Byline: John Donnelly Knight-Ridder Tribune

The most sacred tree in the Middle East is dead.

Or so said a botanist in a conversation the other day.

The tree is Abraham's Oak, at the biblical spot of Mamre, just outside Hebron, the city which has become a virtual synonym for Middle East conflict.

Tradition holds that the oak was a favorite resting spot of the biblical patriarch who lived about 4,750 years ago - the place where the Old Testament says Abraham was visited by angels and where he was told by God that his wife Sarah would have a son.

``It looks completely dead,'' Avishai Shmeda, a botany professor at Hebrew University, said. ``I think it's dead - or at least dying.''

He added that biblical scholars estimate the tree is only 300 years old but believe it is a direct descendant of the holy oak.

The tree is on the property of the Russian Orthodox Church. This part of Hebron is scheduled to fall under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority, if the Israelis and Palestinians ever agree to a transfer of power in the disputed city.

Shmeda said the Russian church made the grave mistake years ago of trying to save the dying tree by building a raised cement wall around it. The wall, he said, instead killed the remaining roots.

The caretaker, Anwar Zablah, 45, is a lifelong resident of the area. He said he had worked at the monastery for more than 20 years.

It is lonely work now, he said. ``We don't have tourists anymore.'' Abraham's Oak, he said, was straight ahead.

On a knoll, 150 feet from the road, it stood.

Sort of.

Set in what looked like a huge cement pot and surrounded by a 10-foot-high iron fence, the gnarled gray-and-charcoal oak stood only because seven metal bars held it upright. Steel belts encircled every weak joint, some of them only preventing broken pieces from falling to the ground.

The tree sprouted not a single green leaf or bud.

The tree was dead.

A tear streaked down caretaker Zablah's left cheek.

``The tree was alive eight months ago,'' he said. ``It still had green leaves. Before, 10 years ago, busloads of people used to come. Every day I have come to this tree, watched over it, prayed by it.''

Two or three tourists a week still visit the site, nearly all attracted by word of mouth. But tourism in the West Bank was dashed by the violence that raged during the intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule from 1987 to 1993. Continuing tensions between Palestinians and Jews have kept most outsiders away from Hebron.

Zablah took a postcard from his pocket. The picture was taken around 1960. Green leaves grew from only one of the two main trunks. In the foreground stood a man, a little boy and a herd of goats.

The boy was Zablah.

``Now all we have left are Abraham's daughters,'' the caretaker said, walking away.

And there, in a corner of the fenced-in plot, were two large oak trees, perhaps 30 years old and 30 feet high - just where the British botanist Hepper thought they might be.

The daughters of Abraham's Oak. Perhaps the progeny of the most sacred tree in the Middle East.

That's how they see it at the Palestinian Authority.

``This could be the next generation,'' said Hani Darghmi, the top deputy to the environmental director. ``So what does that make them?''

He answered himself: ``Holy trees.''

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Photo

Photo: Caretaker Anwar Zablah, 45, tended Abraham's Oak for 20 years.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service