after a year of relentless warGaza’s olive crop is set to suffer losses, while in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian farmers fear tending their trees due to settler attacks.
For generations, the olive harvest has been central to Palestinian life and culture.
“We are happy that the olive season has started, but we are scared because we are in a state of war,” said Rami Abu Assad, a farm owner in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
Workers who hand-pick olives remain alert, listening for drones or warplanes that could bomb without warning.
“But (to Israeli forces) it is clear that we are activists and we don’t do anything else,” he said, referring to the broader Israeli military operation in Jabaliya, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the north.
Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since October 7 attacks last year that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed 42,603 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers credible.
The UN says the ongoing war has reduced vast areas of Gaza to rubble, with about 68 percent of the territory’s agricultural fields damaged by the conflict and farmers unable to fertilize or irrigate their land.
“The number of olive trees remaining is very small and the cost is very high,” Assad said.
low production
Agricultural engineer Jamal Abu Shoaish expects this year’s crop in Gaza to be just 15,000 tons, down from about 40,000 tons in the years before the war.
Supply shortages and the destruction caused by the war would also affect the quality of olives, while prices would rise due to a shortage of the fuel needed to run the machinery needed to sort and press the oil.
In the West Bank, harvests have been damaged due to fear of attacks from Israeli settlers, who routinely prevent Palestinians from accessing their olive groves or outright destroy their orchards.
As for Khaled Abdallah, he has made the difficult decision not to harvest olives this season on his land near the Beit El settlement.
“I didn’t even think about going to these lands near the colony because the situation is very dangerous,” he told AFP. He said he would instead focus on harvesting olives from an isolated property in the village of Jifna, north of Ramallah.
Like other Palestinians who own olive groves near settlements, Abdullah coordinated with Israeli advocacy organizations to obtain special permits for the crops.
“But now there is no rights organization capable of protecting us from settler attacks, and there is no coordination anymore,” he lamented.
Olive groves have long been essential to the West Bank’s economy and culture, but for decades they have also been the site of bloody clashes between farmers and encroaching Israeli settlers over access to the land.
west bank violence
According to the United Nations, in the past, settlers have attacked Palestinians, burning or damaging their crops, stealing sheep and blocking them from accessing their land, water and grazing areas.
And since October 7, the violence has intensified.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said attacks on immigrants have increased “significantly” this year.
Farmers in the village of Madama, south of Nablus, were prevented from accessing their plots for three years, according to the group’s spokesperson Fadia Qawasmi. The settlers also damaged their vehicles.
“The owners were expelled from their land by the residents of Itamar,” said Abdullah Ziada, head of the Madama village council. “There are clashes every day.”
Ziada said, “We cannot distinguish between those who arrest us – whether they are residents or soldiers, because they are sometimes in civilian clothes and armed, and sometimes in military uniforms.”
Earlier this week, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said Israeli forces shot dead a woman in the village of Fakaua, near Jenin, while she was harvesting olives.
The Israeli military said it had made preparations for the harvest season even during the war.
“This is in line with our commitment to maintaining the security of the area and its residents, as well as to allow local residents to harvest their crops,” the army said in a statement to AFP.
“IDF (Israeli military) forces are protecting crops in coordinated areas.”
For many poor Palestinian families, the olive season provides an important source of income.
Earlier this week, UN experts said Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank were facing “the most dangerous olive season ever”.
published – October 21, 2024 12:34 PM IST