Every year between October and November, Palestinians get ready for the marvelous Olive Harvesting Season where families gather to share such significant event. Elderly climb the olive tree dropping the olive fruit as their sons and wives get ready to collect them.
There is always a robust intimacy between olive trees and the Palestinians as it symbols resilience against Israeli occupation. It is rarely to find a Palestinian house without olive trees in the garden.
A total number of 100,000 of Palestinian families rely on on the olive harvest, according to Palestine Trade Centre (PTC).
Olive Harvesting Under Israeli Occupation
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have uprooted around 800,000 Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank since 1967, according to a study published in 2012 by The Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ).
In 2021, IOF destroyed up to 9,300 trees were in the West Bank, the study said.
Furthermore, Israeli Occupation imposes tight restrictions on Palestinian farmers, as they require Israeli permits to access to their lands, beside the physical destruction for the olive trees in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Settlers Deformation
Israeli settlements, which are illegitimate under international law, have been declining the size of Palestinians farmlands in which Israeli Occupation rarely gives permission to Palestinian farmers to access to their land near Israel settlements.
Groups of Israeli settlers attack Palestinian lands every once in a while where confrontations have been escalating over the years.
During the 2020 olive harvest season, OCHA documented at least 26 Palestinians injured and more than 1,700 trees vandalised.
365 settler attacks against Palestinians were reported by the UN group for humanitarian affairs in 2021.
In response, Palestinians launch campaigns to defend their lands against Israeli settlers attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Muayyad Bsharat, head of advocacy at the UAWC, said the main aim of the campaigns is to “strengthen control over our natural resources, by getting Palestinian farmers to their lands in Area C [under full Israeli control], and to other areas under threat by the Israeli occupation”.
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