Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank face economic devastation as a surge in violence by illegal Israeli settlers and the Israeli military prevents them from harvesting their olives. Around 100,000 Palestinian families are estimated to rely on these trees as a source of income.
The start of the war in Gaza coincided with the autumn olive harvest, but the Israeli military has cut off West Bank farmers’ access to their orchards, while reportedly allowing illegal settlers in to steal the olives and destroy the trees.
Yet despite the settler attacks and restrictions on the olive harvest, Palestinian farmers are determined to remain steadfast and help each other harvest as much as possible before the nearing end of the season. With its long history of rootedness in the land, the olive tree is often seen as one of the most evocative symbols of resilience, and representative of a generational bond with the land.
According to a spokesperson for the Israeli military, the restrictions faced by farmers are part of “security operations” in the area aimed at capturing militant groups and protecting Israeli settlers who claim the land, in violation of international law.
They won’t. If they haven’t done anything about illegal settlers for the past 75 years what makes you think they’ll start now?
Don’t they do that like 15 years ago? Problem was they gave it a try for 20 seconds and said “Look this didn’t magically fix the issue, let’s continue again”
The actual problem was that Ariel Sharon, who dismantled the settlements in Gaza and had begun to do the same in the West Bank, had a stroke. He was comatose and never recovered. Subsequent PMs have either lacked political capital to stop building (Olmert), or have actively encouraged it (Netanyahu).