The olive harvest is not only a source of livelihood and sustenance for many Palestinian farmers and their families, it is also a season of Palestinian resistance through existing on their land and continuing to till their soil. Palestinian farmers face ongoing settler violence and attacks by the Israeli occupation army, declaring olive growth areas as closed military zones, seizing them for the construction of illegal colonial settlements, or attacking, burning and slashing the precious trees.
Olive Trees: a National Symbol
For the Israeli occupation as well as for Palestinians, the olive tree is a national symbol of Palestinian rootedness in the land. The olive tree is also critical to the Palestinian economy, used in the making of olive oil, soap and numerous other products. However, since September 2000, over 500,000 olive and other fruit trees have been destroyed by the Israeli occupation. By continuing to remain on their land and harvest their olives, Palestinian farmers are resisting Israeli plans for exclusion, dispossession and ethnic cleansing.
Many Palestinian farmers have been locked out of their land almost entirely. Some are “permitted” to visit their own land only twice a year, to plough and to harvest olives in the autumn, despite the fact that the land and trees need extensive work. The Israeli occupation not only denies Palestinian farmers access to their own land and trees, it forces thousands of olives to remain unharvested as it forcibly excludes Palestinians from their land.
International Volunteer Support
Every year, the International Solidarity Movement calls upon international volunteers to support Palestinian farmers in this critical time, sustaining the harvest and providing an international presence to reduce the risk of violence, attacks, threats and harassment by Israeli occupation forces and illegal settlers. Supporting the olive harvest includes non-violent direct action, documentation and direct, practical involvement with the harvest, under the direction of Palestinian farming families.
ISM in Palestine also partners with the International Women’s Peace Service and the Olive Harvest Trust to subsidize the cost of harvesting machinery and skilled short-term labor in order to help Palestinian farmers complete the harvest more quickly, a form of protection from settler violence. One IWPS volunteer, Rada Daniell, noted the escalation of settlement land confiscation. “When I arrived last year, gazing out the window of the service from Ramallah, I hardly recognized the area around the villages of Bruqin, Kufr ad-Dik and Haris, even though I have picked olives there so many times. The illegal settlements used to be somewhere over the horizon. Now they stretch down to the road. The massive Barkan Industrial Zone near the Ariel settlement expanded so much that it made the whole area unrecognizable,” she said, recalling her presence in Palestine for the 2019 olive harvest.
COVID-19 Challenges
The coronavirus pandemic has made the harvest even more difficult for Palestinian farmers in 2020. With internationals largely blocked from entering Palestine due to travel restrictions, meaning that Palestinians have even less support for the annual occasion. And settler violence has not been restricted by COVID-19. Indeed, Palestinian ISM activists have documented numerous incidents of settler attacks and violence, even while Israeli occupation soldiers block Palestinian farmers from their land and trees, labeling their property a “closed military zone.”
On October 8, Israeli settlers tore up 40 olive trees in the South Hebron Hills, one day after settlers attacked Palestinian farmers picking olives in Huwarra village south of Nablus. Israeli occupation soldiers provided armed guard for the settlers as they attempted to force the Palestinian farmers from their land. On October 12, a group of settlers attacked Palestinian farmers in Burqa, north of Ramallah, with sticks, throwing stones at the harvesters. The settlers bashed in one Palestinian farmer’s car, rendering it unusable. On October 15, Israeli colonial settlers slashed, destroyed and killed hundreds of olive trees in the village of Jaba near Bethlehem. The destroyed trees included 300 trees over 20 years old and 10 trees over 100 years old.
ISM has continued to provide support, even with a limited international presence, and help Palestinian farmers to remain on their land and reap this essential crop. In 2020, the FAZ3A campaign has provided support to particularly at-risk farmers who have seen their land seized or threatened by Israeli soldiers and military forces in areas throughout the occupied West Bank, from Kafr ad-Dik to Bethlehem to Huwarra and Tulkarem.
Settler Violence Escalates
This project comes as Palestinian farmers face an array of attacks from Israeli occupation forces. In the South Hebron Hills, Israeli occupation soldiers demolished a family’s home on October 18, their sheep enclosure and the small shed used to store food and supplies for the sheep. They even destroyed a family’s tent they were living in after their home had been destroyed the previous week. Just one day later, Palestinian farmers in Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik reported sewage and industrial waste was illegally dumped by settlers in their olive groves, polluting the land amid the harvest.
On October 27, Israeli forces destroyed a water well in the village of Birin. The violence continued the next day. In Masafer Yatta, thousands of people and livestock depend on an irrigation system developed by Palestinians that reaches over 20 villages in the area. However, this essential water system has been repeatedly destroyed on a nearly annual basis by Israeli forces and the so-called “civil administration” of the military occupation imposed on the West Bank. On October 28, they once again cut off the water pipeline, leaving farmers with no means to irrigate their crops or livestock, serving as yet another attempt to force Palestinians from their land.
The 2020 olive harvest has continued, with Palestinians insisting on remaining steadfast on their land, harvesting their crops and protecting their presence on the ground in the face of heavily armed forces and an entire system dedicated to their expulsion. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided no relief for these endangered villagers, especially as many international supporters have been blocked from joining the campaigns in support of the farmers. ISM and fellow Palestinian organizations on the ground have been stretched thin, working hard to provide support to the numerous farmers affected by the harvest.
Support Palestinian Farmers
The urgent situation of the 2020 olive harvest makes it clear how important the work of international volunteers is in traveling to Palestine, standing and working beside Palestinian farmers before, during and after the harvest. It also makes clear the importance of supporting Palestinian farmers through fair trade projects that bring olive oil and other Palestinian produce to the world, as well as the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against those who profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and the confiscation of Palestinian land.
ISM needs volunteers to support this important work, telling the stories of Palestinian farmers and traveling to Palestine to provide direct action and sustenance on the ground. Contact ISM NorCal to learn more about how you can be a part of supporting Palestinian resilience and resistance on the ground.