Israeli forces and Jewish settlers are making this “the most dangerous olive harvest season ever” for Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank.

This warning came from a dozen UN human rights experts, including Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

During October, at least 270 settler-related attacks on Palestinians and their property were documented by UN monitoring group OCHA – across 110 communities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Armed settlers and Israeli soldiers attack, harass and prevent farmers from accessing their land, and at times injure or kill them.

Israelis burned, cut and vandalized more than 1,000 trees during October, mostly olives. They also stole crops and harvesting tools from Palestinians.

Israel blocks Palestinians from entering their land with physical barriers, limiting the times they are allowed to be on their land and even placing arbitrary restrictions on the ages and number of farmers permitted to access the land.

For example, Israeli occupation authorities are limiting access to land near the Israeli settlement of Mevo Dotan “to about 50 farmers, aged 40 years or older,” according to OCHA.

This seriously hampers access to nearly 5,000 acres of land belonging to multiple families in the Jenin governorate.

Palestinian farmers are able to access their own lands in certain areas only with “prior coordination” permits granted by Israeli authorities.

Attacks on farmers are “expected to worsen as Israeli authorities have increasingly revoked or failed” to issue them, the UN experts said.

Israeli authorities partially lifted restrictions on access to olive groves within 200 meters of Israeli settlement boundaries.

But that is never a guarantee for the safety of Palestinians harvesting their olives.

On 17 October, a 59-year-old Palestinian woman was fatally shot by Israeli fire while she was harvesting olives about 200 meters from the apartheid wall in the village of Fuqaa, near Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

But that area required no permits from the Israeli military.

“A man dressed in military uniform arrived and fired approximately 10 shots in her direction,” Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported.

She was identified as Hanan Abd al-Rahman Abu Salama by the Palestinian Authority health ministry.

“A security source stated that according to an initial inquiry, Abu Salama was shot in an area where Palestinians are not required to coordinate olive harvesting with Israeli authorities, although they are advised to notify them before approaching the barrier,” Haaretz reported.

A member of the village council told the newspaper that the Palestinian Authority liaison office had informed the council that olive harvesting was permitted with coordination with Israeli occupation authorities. Munir Barakat, the council member, said residents were then informed they could access their olive groves near the apartheid wall, as Abu Salama was doing.

Attacks doubled

Settler attacks are a regular part of the olive harvest season year after year, and a serious threat to Palestinian lives and livelihoods.

But since Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Jewish extremists have been emboldened to escalate their sometimes lethal attacks on Palestinians, with complete impunity and habitual protection of the Israeli military.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 14,000 trees – mostly olive – have been uprooted, destroyed or damaged, the publication Arab 48 reported, citing figures documented by Palestinians.

The documented settler attacks on Palestinians related to the olive harvest so far this year are at least double the 60 settler attacks recorded during last year’s harvest. The UN monitoring group OCHA said there were 59 incidents in 2022 and 36 in 2021.

During last year’s season, Israeli occupation forces canceled nearly all approvals for Palestinians to access their lands.

Palestinians could not access their privately owned land located within the boundaries of Jewish-only settlements or along roads used by settlers.

They remain “completely off-limits” to Palestinian farmers this year as well, UN OCHA said.

As a result, Palestinians were unable to harvest more than 23,700 acres of olive-cultivated land and lost 1,200 metric tons of olive oil – worth an estimated $10 million.

When Israel’s genocide in Gaza started in October 2023, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank faced the highest levels of violence and movement restrictions by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in many years.

Significance

The autumn olive harvest is vital to Palestinian economy and olives and olive oil are a deeply rooted part of Palestinian diet and culture.

A decade ago, UN figures indicated that the olive oil industry accounted for 25 percent of the agricultural income in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Typically beginning after the first rainfall at the beginning of fall, the harvest continues through October and into November. Palestinians of all ages gather to pick olives in their groves, sharing folk songs and sorting their crops.

This video shows a Palestinian man extracting oil from olive fruit in the Kafr al-Labad village in Tulkarem, in the northeastern occupied West Bank:

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