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Olive Harvest 2005 |
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Written by Ahmad Jaradat
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Saturday, 17 December 2005 |
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Olive Harvest in the Occupied Territories, Autumn 2005: The ?Season of Blessing? is a ?Season of Suffering? under Israeli Occupation
Starting out in low gear due to the month of Ramadan, the olive harvest ? ?The Season of Blessing? - is now in full swing. Throughout history, this season has been of national, cultural and social significance; symbolizing the connection of the people to their land.
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Traditionally the season is a time of rejoicing, a time in which whole
communities and families cooperate in the labor intensive harvest. It
is also a time with economic significance ? the olive oil often being
the primary source of income for many a family.
In Palestinian farmers? culture, the land and trees represent honor and dignity. Before the occupation, the Palestinian Education Ministry would give all students two weeks? holiday to help their families with the harvest. According to Mohammed Shalaldeh, an elderly teacher from Saeer, ?this was to help the families, but more so to respect the olive trees...and the oil that it gives.? The olive is widely considered a holy tree, referred to in all holy books, and there are manifold stories and proverbs related to it.
Farmers have been planting olive trees in Palestine for millennia, the main variety being the Roman olive ? a tree that can live for hundreds, and even several thousand years. The olive tree provides one of the main sources of income for the majority of Palestinian families.
A Target for the Settlers and the Army
After the 1967 War, Jewish settlers began to arrive en masse in the Occupied Territories, bulldozing thousands of olive groves before them. It would be difficult to find a settlement that is not, at least in part, built on an olive grove. The Israeli army also directly targets the olive trees, uprooting olive trees to punish the civilian population. The military understand the psychological effect this has on the population. During the second Intifada, hundreds of thousands of trees have been uprooted.
However, the olive tree also represents one form of Palestinian resistance to the Occupation - where a settlement or land confiscation is planned, activists plant olive trees.
The harvest season and settler attacks since the Second Intifada
While the settlers have targeted olive trees near the settlements since the beginning of the Occupation, during the Second Intifada these attacks have not only continued to be part of specific settler policy, but have also become more systematic. In 2002, the settler leadership in the West Bank called on the settlers to prevent Palestinian farmers from entering their land located near the settlements. Human rights organizations have evidence that settlers have injured and even killed farmers during the harvest and succeeded in preventing thousands of dunums (4 dunums=1 acre) from being harvested. They have also burned and cut thousands of trees.
Over the last few years, Israeli and international activists have come to support Palestinian farmers in their harvest. Both in the north and in the hills south of Hebron, the farmers value this much-needed support. Many town mayors say that without this help, they would be unable to reach thousands of trees for harvesting.
The Olive Harvest 2005
Although the olive harvest has just begun, attacks on farmers have already been reported. Settlers from Itamar attacked dozens of farmers from the villages of Beit Foureek, Awarta and Agraba and forced them from the land. Ali Mostafa, a farmer from Agraba said,
?It seems this year that the settlers have decided to prevent us from harvesting more land than in previous years. A few days ago, the settlers burned more than 300 olive dunams, around two thousand trees. They cut 400 olive trees from land belonging to farmers in village of Salem in the Nablus district. The same thing happened to dozens of farmers from Kafr Kadoom in the Qalqeelya district, when settlers from Kedumin attacked the farmers and forced them to leave their land. The settlers pointed guns in the faces of farmers, warning that they would shoot them if they did not leave. They also forced them to leave the olives they had gathered.?
The Harvest Season and the Separation Wall
Eight per cent of the Occupied Territories are now located west of the Separation Wall, separating Palestinian farmers from hundreds of thousands dunums of olive groves. A public commitment by Israeli authorities to enable the free passage of Palestinian farmers to their land ? particularly during harvest season - has not been kept. Even in the places where access is given, farmers are still prevented from harvesting properly. For example, the permission only allows a few hours? worth of daily access, or it prohibits vehicles from passing through the Wall. Farmers are thus forced to use donkeys or carry the crops themselves.
This year, the problems are unlikely to diminish ? and may even intensify. In the Salfeet district, the army and settlers prevented hundreds of farmers from many villages from passing through the Wall to reach their land. The Director of the Agriculture Ministry in Salfeet, Ibraheem Hamad, reported that the Israeli authorities hadn?t given permission to the farmers from Mas?ha, A-Zawiya and other villages to reach the land on the other side of the Wall. At least six thousand dunams of olive trees in both villages are located beyond the Wall. The mayor of A-Zawiya, Amir Shugar, called on all human rights organizations to help the farmers in his village and to put more pressure on the Israeli authorities to grant them permission to harvest.
In conclusion, all evidence has shown that, unfortunately, this year the farmers will again face serious problems throughout the harvest season from settlers, the army, closures and, more than anything, the Separation Wall. This also means a sizeable proportion of the farmers? income will be lost.
For more information see:
1) Olive harvest begins under the shadow of restrictions on movement B'Tselem Report, 13/10/05
2) The International Solidarity Movement Olive Harvest Campaign 2005
3) American Friends Service Committee Olive Harvest ?Faces of Hope? Campaign 2005
4) The Joint Advocacy Initiative Olive Picking Program
5) Zaytoun Olive Harvest 2005 blogs by participants
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