Surge in attacks: Israeli settlers terrorise Palestinian olive farmers

Violence aims to drive Palestinians from their land, farmers' union in occupied West Bank says

Settler attacks on Palestinian olive growers in the occupied West Bank this year have surged to four times the level recorded before the Gaza war began two years ago, the Palestinian Farmers' Union said.

There was an average of three attacks a day before the conflict broke out in October 2023. This year, this has increased to an average of 13 a day, Abbas Milhem, executive director of the union, told The National.

Footage was circulated online showing one such attack last week, when a masked settler clubbed a 55-year-old Palestinian woman unconscious. The incident sparked global outrage, but there have been hundreds of other cases when Palestinians were prevented from harvesting olives.

“The number of incidents has clearly escalated, with 757 or so incidents in the past two weeks, and they vary from refusing entry for a Palestinian to his own farmland to pick olives to groups proactively attacking Palestinians,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told Beyond the Headlines.

The attacks have increased in brutality and frequency. They are often carried out under the protection of Israeli forces, witnesses and international rights organisations have said.

“There is no fear on the part of Israeli settlers and there's a reason for that – one is the lack of accountability and impunity for many years now,” Mr Sunghay added.

About 140,000 families in the West Bank live either partially or entirely off olive oil production, Mr Milhem said. For Palestinians, the annual harvest, which this year began on October 9, is not just a commercial activity but a celebration of family, tradition and their connection to the land.

An Israeli flag flies in the olive field of a Palestinian after a settler attack in the occupied West Bank. AFP

Attacks are not the only way Palestinians are being prevented from harvesting the fruit of their year's work. “Sometimes [settlers] steal the olives that have been harvested,” Mr Milhem said.

Israel authorities have adopted other ways to discourage farmers from tending their land, he added. Those include designating agricultural land as “security areas” to prevent Palestinians from gaining access. While they are prohibited from entering such areas, Israeli settlers are not, he said.

“This describes how settlers benefit from the genocidal war in Gaza, along with the ethnic cleansing war in the West Bank, of removing Palestinian farmers from their areas," he said.

Gazans return to olive groves

In Gaza, a US-brokered ceasefire that began on October 10 has allowed people to return to what remains of their olive groves after two years of devastating war.

Mohammed Ishtawi, 54, found only eight trees were still standing where more than 150 once filled his 13 dunums (1.3 hectares) of land in Al Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza city. The rest were destroyed in Israeli attacks.

“Every year, my children and grandchildren would gather,” he told The National. "We’d live on the land for a week, picking olives, eating traditional food, singing heritage songs. Those were the most beautiful days.

“When the truce began, I was overjoyed to find even those eight trees still standing. They are the scent of the land, the memory of my father and grandfather.”

Although the area, once famous for its sprawling olive groves, is now largely flattened and barren, residents returned as soon as the ceasefire took effect in an effort to pick olives from the few surviving trees.

“People here are deeply attached to the olive season,” Mr Ishtawi said. “The olive tree is heritage. Its presence proves that Palestinians are still rooted in their land.”

Further south, in Deir Al Balah, Ahmad Abu Qutta, 32, has managed to harvest his family’s three dunums of olive trees during the truce. “The conditions were finally safe enough," he said. "We gathered, my father, siblings and relatives, and picked the olives together. It was a small blessing after so much loss.

"Even during the war, when I felt anxious or afraid, I would go to the land, clean the trees, water them. I see my life in that land.”

But much of Gaza’s olive groves and farmland no longer exist. Israeli bombings and bulldozers have razed vast areas, leaving only patches of green in the central areas of the enclave.

“Israel destroyed most of Gaza’s agricultural lands and centuries-old trees,” said Ismail Al Thawabta, director of Gaza's government media office. “Tens of thousands of dunums of farmland were turned to dust. Olive fields in the north, south and centre, all wiped out.”

Before the war, Gaza had 33,000 dunums of olive trees, yielding about 23,000 tonnes of olives each year. “Today, only a few tonnes remain,” Mr Al Thawabta said.

The olive season once united Gaza. Families, schools, universities and government institutions all took part. “This year, those traditions vanished," he added.

Gaza's olive presses used to run day and night during the harvest season. But now business is “a shadow of what it once was”, said Mahmoud Sabra, who supervises one of the few presses still functioning in the enclave.

“Before the ceasefire, the press was closed – it was too dangerous to operate in Gaza city,” he said. “When the truce came and people began harvesting, we reopened.”

But the amount of olives they receive is often meagre. “Now, when someone brings 100kg of olives, we consider it a large amount. Before, people brought tonnes,” he said. “We collect small batches together to press them, but the diesel prices are high, the cost of pressing one kilogram has reached two shekels [$0.60].”

He doubts the press will produce more than a tonne of olive oil this year. “The trees were destroyed. The harvest is gone. And so is the livelihood of thousands of families,” he said.