By Miri -
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Olive Harvest, Palestine 1886 |
The annual olive harvest
in Palestine used to be a season of joy and festivities. Whole
families, including elders and toddlers would gather in the groves
and help bring in the crops, eat breakfast together in the shade of
the trees, and listen to stories and jokes. In the evenings they
would bring the harvest back to the villages and directly to the
olive press, watching it being processed into oil. The gleaming green
and spicy taste of the first bit of freshly pressed oil would be a
source of pride and celebration. Finally, the end of the season would
be celebrated with regional festivals, with food, dance and music.
Olive Picking Tour
12 days / 11 nights
21st October - 1st November 2013
Registration is open
More information > >
Olive Picking Tour
12 days / 11 nights
21st October - 1st November 2013
Registration is open
More information > >
Not all of this is
history, yet much has changed in Palestine, especially during the
past decade, which saw an increase in settlement building activities,
the construction of the Separation Barrier, and the increasingly
violent attitude of settlers. And still, according to the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
48% of the agricultural land in both Gaza and the West Bank is
planted with olive trees. The olive oil industry makes up 14% of the
agricultural income for both regions and supports the livelihoods of
approximately 80,000 Palestinian families.
For some farmers, the
harvest constitutes between 25 to 50% of their annual income.
Land Theft and Access
Problems
From 1967 onwards the
construction of settlements, outposts and settlement infrastructure
led to the confiscation of hundreds of thousands of dunams of
Palestinian land. During the same process more than a million olive
trees were uprooted or could no longer be reached by their
Palestinian owners.
The construction of the
Separation Barrier, much of which was built on seized Palestinian
land, or between Palestinians and their land, further exacerbated
this situation. According to the UN the Wall effectively annexed 9,5% of the total area of the
West Bank to the Israeli side.
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Farmers waiting for the army to open the gates |
Farmers who own land on
the other side of the Wall have to apply to the Israeli authorities
for permits to access their groves through one out of 73 barrier
gates. Most of those gates are only open during the harvest season and also then only
for limited hours. Throughout the rest of the year
the farmers therefore cannot perform the necessary maintenance tasks
such as ploughing, pruning and fertilising, which obviously
has negative effects on the quality and the quantity of the yield.
In addition, the UN also
states that annually thousands of farmers are denied the permits to
access their groves behind the Wall. In 2011 only 58% of the
applicants were granted a permit.
Settler Vandalism and
Violence
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Farmer showing his destroyed trees |
In recent years there has
been an increasing trend of settlers purposefully damaging or
destroying olive trees before the beginning of the harvest. In many cases trees were uprooted, poisoned or
burned down, in others settlers harvested the olives or simply stole the crops from the farmers.
Between January and October 2012 alone, the UN estimates that 7,500
trees were harmed or destroyed.
Due to an increase of
physical attacks of Palestinians through settlers, the Israeli army
started employing a system which is supposed to protect the farmers, but which effectively limits their access to the
lands closely located to settlements. The farmers are thus only allowed to access their lands during a designated time of usually only a few days, during which soldiers are deployed in the specific area. While this has led to a decrease in
violent attacks on the farmers, it could not prevent settlers from
destroying the trees.
Unsurprisingly, settlers
are rarely prosecuted, neither for physical attacks against
Palestinians, nor for the destruction of Palestinian property. According to the
Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, only one out of 162
complaints regarding settlers damaging olive trees has so far led to
an indictment of a suspect.
Palestinian "Summoud"
Notwithstanding all these
obstacles, the olive harvest remains a key economic, social and
cultural event for Palestinians. In a way the occupation has even
strengthened the connection between the Palestinian people and their
trees, and the annual harvest is seen by many as an act of defiance
and a symbol of “summoud”, the Arabic term for steadfastness.
For the first time this
year Green Olive Tours is organising
a special programme, offering
you the opportunity to participate in the annual olive harvest. There is
hardly a better way to gain insights into Palestinian culture and
life than to work side by side with the farmers on their land. For
more information see here.
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