Why settler intimidation of West Bank farmers is about far more than the olive harvest
Ibrahim Abu Hijleh, right, with his fellow farmer Majdi Sahaban, points to one of the nearby Israeli settlements that he says have prevented him from bringing 90% of his harvest
Jason Burke reports in The Guardian on 11 December 2024:
The olive trees cover the dry, rocky slopes around Deir Istiya, spreading deep into the valley to its west, lining the main roads, filling the gardens, and shading its graveyards.
But many farmers in the historical Palestinian town, deep in the occupied West Bank, say that this year they have been unable to harvest much of the vital olive crop, blaming an intensifying campaign of intimidation and violence by people from the half-dozen Israeli settlements and outposts nearby.
Ibrahim Abu Hijleh, 30, a farmer whose small olive grove is 200 metres from Revava, a settlement built in the 1990s, said he was able to reach his olive grove only for a few hours in November when accompanied by Israeli activists and a Palestinian Israeli member of parliament.
“I got about 10% of the harvest and now we need to trim and tend the trees,” he said. “I keep trying to go back but people come from the settlement and tell us to leave and threaten us.”
Last month the UN said Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank that resulted in casualties or property damage had at least tripled during the 2024 olive harvest season compared with each of the preceding three years.
Between 1 October and 25 November, the UN documented 250 settler-related incidents across 88 West Bank communities, with 57 Palestinians injured by settlers and 11 by Israeli forces. More than 2,800 trees –mostly slow-growing olive trees – were burned, sawed-off, or vandalised, and there was significant theft of crops and harvesting tools, it said.