![]() ![]() It is one of the communities most affected by settler-related violence, and 80 per cent of Burin is in Area C, under Israeli military and administrative control. The village of Burin, home to roughly 2,500 people on the northern West Bank, is nestled between two hills on which stand two Israeli settlements: Yitzhar and Har Bracha. Two days later in Burin, south-west of Nablus, a 22-year-old Palestinian farmer lost an eye to a stone thrown by Yitzhar settlers, in the presence of international volunteers. In the village of Kisa, south of Bethlehem, attackers from the Ma’ale Amos settlement punctured the lung of a 70-year-old Israeli activist with an iron rod on 19 October, landing her in the hospital. The situation has deteriorated so badly that activists accompany farmers to their groves during harvest time in an attempt to dissuade – or failing that, document – further attacks. Having lost 35 trees in the attack, he estimates this year’s loss to be a ton of olives, worth some 6,000 shekels (approximately US$1,750 or €1,700).įormerly carried out in a festive atmosphere, the harvest is now clouded by fear and powerlessness as Israeli aggressions multiply and intensify during this period. “Settlers have taken a toll on Palestinian farmers’ lives, not only from an economic standpoint.”Īt the peak of the season, al-Hajj Muhammed once reaped 30 kilos of olives from each tree. “ Olive trees and agriculture are my main source of income, yet there’s nothing I can do to protect my crops,” al-Hajj Muhammed tells Equal Times, clasping his arms around an uprooted tree and fighting a sense of resignation. But it’s about more than money: Palestinians see it as a symbol of their historic bond to the land, a chance to pass down traditions to their children and connect them to their heritage. The harvest season, running from October to November, is a financial lifeline for approximately 80,000 Palestinian families across the West Bank. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that between August 2020 and August 2021 alone, settlers destroyed more than 9,300 olive trees. The Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din documented 42 such attacks in 2021, while this year the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has so far recorded 23 incidents disrupting the harvest season, resulting in more than 800 olive trees destroyed. And these are far from isolated incidents. It’s not the first time this has happened: he already lost an eye in a similar settler attack a decade ago. ![]() “The Israeli army backed the aggressors and threw tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at us so that the settlers could keep on destroying our crops,” recalls al-Hajj Muhammed, a 45-year-old father of four. The trespassers also set fire to a vehicle and water tank for good measure before retreating to their homes in Idei Ad, in the northern West Bank. The band of nearly two dozen settlers from the nearby Israeli illegal settlement of Idei Ad attacked the olive farmer and his friend Mazen Mohammed, owner of the grove next door, uprooting and heavily damaging a total of 80 olive trees and almond saplings between the two properties. ![]() Armed with metal bars and stones, a group of men descended on Kazem al-Hajj Muhammmad and his olive grove in the village of al-Mughayyir, north-east of Ramallah, in the early hours of 20 October 2022. ![]()
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