The olive harvest has traditionally been the joyous highpoint of the year for small-scale farmers across the West Bank, when families gather on their land, neighbours help each other, and income arrives that many households depend on. But this time of olive gathering is becoming the most dangerous time of all.
This year, farmers say they have been waiting for the harvest for two years, because last year’s crop was so poor. While the yield is looking much better this year – news from all across the West Bank is giving grave cause for concern.
What farmers are reporting
Across the Jenin and Nablus areas, Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA) farmers are reporting widespread destruction of olive groves, the uprooting of ancient trees, restrictions on access to farmland and the theft of harvested olives. In some communities, thousands of trees have been destroyed, while elsewhere farmers are unable to reach their land at all. The reports coming in from villages across the northern West Bank paint a devastating picture of the scale of the destruction and the threats farmers face simply trying to harvest their crops.
We’ve included a summary of the reports received from individual communities at the end of the blog.
The PFTA is currently overwhelmed by the number of reports reaching it, and is compiling a list documenting the incidents. The situation is hardest in the Jenin area, particularly around Arraba and Ya’bad. One farmer in Ya’bad told the PFTA he had two groves: one had been bulldozed and he is prevented from reaching the other. Some of the trees he lost were 300 to 400 years old. This year, he said, he will have to buy olive oil.
Palestinians are resilient people – they have to be – but every week, situations they could hardly imagine before become “the new normal”.
We have to steal our own olives before they do
Farmers are finding whatever way they can to carry on. Those near settlements may harvest early, before the olives are fully ripe, because sacks left on the farm overnight are reportedly stolen. One farmer went to his grove alone and worked as quietly as he could, asking his son to collect the sacks at the end of the day so there was nothing to take. The tarpaulins were stolen instead, so he now brings new ones every day.
New settler outposts are springing up all the time, and those olive groves near them are at high risk. The latest reports we are hearing describe settlers waiting until late in the afternoon before arriving and violently removing people from the groves, and then taking all the picked olives themselves. The old strategy of gathering on one another’s farms for safety in numbers no longer works. A large group can draw more settlers, and the military often backs them up. As one group of farmers put it, with grim humour: “We have to steal our own olives before they do!”
The PFTA expects the impact on members’ yields to be significant, with an estimated 30% of the crop likely to be destroyed, go unharvested or be stolen.
As we write this update, the elections are underway and, whatever the outcome, Palestinians are obviously concerned about what the implications will be for them. However, at the moment most farmers are still managing to harvest at least some of their crop, and internationally there are some positive signs that there’s growing coverage of the violence and destruction across the West Bank in mainstream media.
Replanting: Trees for Life
Even in the face of this, farmers are planning to plant again. Applications to the PFTA’s Trees for Life programme opened a few days ago, and farmers are already coming forward, including growers from an area where around 650 dunums and 8,000 trees have been uprooted. Many of those trees were only five to seven years old. They are determined to replant regardless. Nursery stock this year is excellent, and once distribution begins it will go quickly.
Demand is outstripping supply. Last year farmers asked for 100,000 trees and 65,000 were handed out. With only a few much smaller outlets supplying olive trees, the PFTA is now the major supplier, and more funding is needed to buy more seedlings. This year, priority will go to farmers who didn’t receive the number of trees they requested.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
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Here is some of what farmers have reported to the PFTA community by community:
- Zabuba: More than 150 dunums (10 dunums = 1 hectare) and around 3,000 olive trees have been uprooted by the Israeli army. Farmers are also barred from land within 300 metres of the Wall, cutting them off from more than 50 dunums of their own land. Requests to coordinate access have been refused so far.
- Anin: Around 11,600 dunums of olive groves have been isolated from the village by the separation Wall, leaving their owners unable to reach them.
- Arraba and Ya’bad: Hundreds of dunums have been cleared, including ancient olive trees belonging to PFTA farmers.
- Fuqoua: Farmers face harassment and are prevented from reaching around 800 dunums of olive groves. Settlers are reportedly harvesting crops from some of this land.
- Sebastia: Around 1,800 dunums of olive-growing land are out of reach, amid army restrictions and attacks by settlers on Palestinians trying to access their land.
- Silat al-Harithiya: More than 4,800 olive trees across 376 dunums have been cleared, along with more than 35 rainwater collection wells. Many of the trees had been planted through the PFTA’s Trees for Life programme in recent years.