Witnessing the olive harvest under siege
Umut Günce
In this article, we would like to share information about the annual olive harvest in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which is coming to an end these days. At the same time, we would like to uncover the experience of dozens and dozens of international volunteers who have decided to express concrete solidarity with the main victims of the policies of expulsion and dispossession of land in Palestine: the farmers.
Despite increasingly restrictive visa policies, pressing interrogations and mobile phone checks at the border, and numerous rejections and deportations, it is estimated that over a thousand international activists took part in the olive harvest. They were able to see that violence against Palestinian farmers has reached unprecedented levels. This is due to the dramatic surge and escalation of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank following the genocidal war of October 7th which has included, in its surgical strategy, the distribution of weapons and tactical vehicles to illegal settlers in the West Bank.
It is precisely the settlers who greet us with their disturbing presence around October 20th, when, travelling along Route 60 towards Nablus, we witness massive demonstrations at all the intersections leading to dozens of settlements. They are demonstrating during the visit of senior US diplomats to Israel, demanding greater political support for their mission of messianic colonialism. The impression is that of heavily armed fanatical militias, ready for anything.
17,000 OLIVE TREES WERE CUT DOWN
Settlers have targeted Palestinian property more than 2,400 times in the last two years, displacing at least 3,055 people, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In fact, attacks by settlers on farmers, as certified by OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, increased by 13% in the first weeks of the harvest compared to the same period last year. Data from a few days ago reports about 130 attacks, but it should be noted that these numbers are extremely underestimated for at least two reasons. First, OCHA counts attacks with certified damage to property and people, but not all those attacks that fortunately have no physical consequences but still prevent harvesting, constituting psychological violence, threats and intimidation of even extreme severity. Second, OCHA compiles statistics exclusively on settler attacks, while the operations of the occupying army are not counted. For example, the several thousand olive trees cut down or uprooted by military bulldozers in al-Mughayyir, an agricultural area northeast of Ramallah, are not included in this sad tally. It is estimated that 17,000 olive trees have been uprooted since 2024 alone.
One of our first experiences in the field took place in Aqraba. This year, four people were killed by settlers while grazing, and the ambulances that rushed to their aid were blocked for four hours. Outside the village, we found about 15 Palestinian cars waiting to harvest, because the COGAT, the coordination office between the Palestinian Authority and the occupiers, has granted permission for harvesting in a very large area at the foot of a settlement. Many areas classified as Area C and even Area B under the Oslo Accords are inaccessible to farmers because they are considered sensitive due to the presence of roads, checkpoints or settlements. In these cases, with much effort and delay, the municipality requests a coordination permit, tansiq in Arabic, which imposes draconian conditions: only 24 hours of harvesting for large areas, and a ban on access for people under 40 years of age. This is why there are so many cars parked: to harvest as quickly as possible, the whole village mobilises, using ancient mechanisms of popular solidarity. When we arrived, the army, border police and settler security militia were already blocking the road. Even if they were informed in advance of our presence, we are told that they do not want internationals around, and we are forced to turn back, otherwise they would have revoked the permit.
It is now not uncommon for them to impose such conditions to avoid having international witnesses.
On the short return journey, barely 15 minutes, we saw a myriad of outposts and settlements. Many were created after 7 October. Almost all the strategic areas, the hilltops, are now colonised. We were staying not far from the notorious Yitzhar colony. This is where the Jewish supremacist group 'Hilltop Youth' was founded. With a single colony, they have stolen and prevented access to the lands of the six surrounding villages: we met families who, looking disconsolately at the hill, told us that they have not had access to their land for almost forty years.
THEIR ONLY REQUEST IS VISIBILITY
They told us about the security coordinator, Yacub, who rages, demanding protection money from the truck drivers of the local stone quarry, beating up farmers, stealing their equipment and agricultural products. Sometimes they even show up at the farmers' homes, humiliating them and confiscating bread, yoghurt and livestock. Their power is unchallenged and they can even go so far as to overturn coordination decrees issued by the army. We saw this first-hand one day when Yitzhar settlers coming down the hill were firing automatic weapons to chase away around 35 farmers. They were harvesting land that had been inaccessible for three years, after receiving the go-ahead from the army.
Around 100,000 families rely on olive oil production in Palestine. This year is the worst year in terms of production in the last 15 years: only 15-20% of normal production. A gallon of freshly pressed olive oil costs between 700 and 1,000 shekels, more than double the normal price, for an incredible cost per litre of over 45 euros. The consequences of climate change, with annual rainfall almost halved in the last year, are thus compounded by the ecocide caused by the Zionist occupation, which steals water, destroys and pollutes the land.
Often during work, we were thinking aloud about the meaning of our presence. Each of us arrived here with different ideas and expectations, but we quickly learn from the Palestinians that solidarity is reciprocity. "We know how to harvest our olives ourselves, we've always done it," many of them are keen to point out. It is the sharing of the joys and sorrows of this moment of extraordinary community importance that the farmers yearn for. "You can't imagine how important it is for us to be seen and treated as human beings for once," a young man told us. This is the reason for the pride and moving depth of the moments of conviviality: drinking coffee and breaking bread sitting on one's own land, alone or with guests who have come from afar, is an act of reappropriation of enormous power. Especially when you have been forced for years to harvest your olives in secret, at 5:30 in the morning, hoping not to be seen by the settlers, forced to act like a thieve in your own property.
GANGS FREQUENTLY PATROL ARMED
We have another tangible experience of daily violence in Jurish, south of Nablus, where we go at the request of local farmers. The beautiful landscape of semi-arid hills is dotted not only with the settlers' containers and prefabricated buildings, but also with the sight and sound of huge orange bulldozers digging and hammering the rock to prepare new outposts. The settler gangs patrol this area extensively, and in fact they are not long in arriving. The farmers told us to ignore them, and we continue to harvest the olives while the three of them pass by menacingly on their all-terrain quad, filming and scrutinising us.
They left and after a few minutes a military patrol appeared: "You are in a permitted area, you can work, they will not bother you anymore." Obviously, this was a lie, because after about twenty minutes they reappeared more aggressive than before: they have loaded a fighting dog onto their vehicle, inciting it to bark and simulate attacks, but they do not get out of their vehicle. Frustrated by our indifference, they retreated to the nearby hill and stage a provocative but grotesque olive harvest, beating a couple of trees with long sticks, probably damaging them. It is a clear message: we can steal your olives whenever we want, we have the power here. It was, in fact, only a matter of time before their strategy was accomplished: on their third raid of the morning, they managed to isolate a group of Palestinians not far from us, chasing and threatening them. We rushed over, but it was too late. They went out of their vehicle armed with an assault rifle and a pistol. We try to save the olives while we can, but they advanced menacingly with their weapons and dog, forcing us to retreat. We entered a fenced-off area, but that was not enough to stop them: they also entered escorted by a military patrol.
The scene of several Palestinian children bursting into tears, terrified, in the arms of the women, was heartbreaking. After long and tense discussions with the farmers, the soldiers announced that the area has been declared a temporary military zone and ordered us to evacuate: this is an increasingly used strategy to prevent support actions, as only Palestinian residents are allowed to remain on site. It is probably not true that an order has been issued, but the risk of being arrested and deported like many activists in previous weeks is high and we cannot take any chances. We learned later that two young Palestinians had been arrested, accused of throwing stones. There was great concern for them, as they may face long periods of detention and all kinds of violence. Fortunately, they were released two or three days later, and we can finally say that the day could have ended much worse.
Every single day, we received news of Palestinians and internationals being heavily attacked, beaten and even seriously injured. The steadfastness of the Palestinian people, the sumud, is tangible and has enabled them to resist for 77 years in unimaginable conditions. This is demonstrated by the various visits to cooperatives, communities, villages and civic centres that one has the privilege of experiencing when visiting occupied Palestine. Everyone has stories to tell, concerns to express, projects and dreams to share. Nevertheless, ethnic cleansing and silent genocide are advancing, finding increasingly cruel and sadistic ways to hurt civil society, severing ties and destroying hopes for the future.
It is also up to us, people of solidarity and humanity around the world, to commit ourselves now more than ever to ending the occupation and securing the rights of the Palestinian people before it is too late.
