Israeli settlers take Palestinian olives, and their harvest traditions

As Israeli settlers harvest olives on Palestinian land, farmers face growing violence and the loss of a tradition passed down through generations. Save Share Ramallah, occupied West Bank –The video shared in Israeli settler groups shows two men bashing an olive tree with long wooden sticks. Smiling and congratulating one another, they try to knock the olives to the ground. They call the result “Pure Olive Oil”. But as Palestinian activist Bashar Qaryouti explained, the two men don’t own the land, the trees, or the olives. They’re Israeli settlers who set up anillegal settlement outposton private property in the village of Qaryut, in the northern occupied West Bank, and made their way into this olive grove, some 200 metres (656 feet) away from Palestinian homes. “No one has come near here for about three years, thank God,” one of the two men in the video says in Hebrew. Local Palestinians know the man by name, and he does little to hide. The man is Avichai Suissa, an Israeli settler sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom – and previously by the United States – who runs a farm on the outpost. It was established more than a year and a half ago, and videos like this help Suissa raise donations for it. On his campaign page, he says the goal is to rebuild and expand the farm, which was once dismantled by the Israeli army, to prevent it from falling “into enemy hands”. “We’re gradually starting to work our way into the area,” Suissa said in the video. But the land belongs to Palestinians – residents of Qaryut – who have not been able to reach it since the genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023. “A few months ago, farmers tried to plough their land, but the army stopped them,” Qaryouti said. “After we complained, the army declared the area a closed military zone a few days ago, so settlers are going to other lands, to other olives to steal,” Qaryouti explained. Suissa and others are part of a growing movement of settlers who have intensified their campaign against theolive harvest. The campaign, part of a settler pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank, has turned the olive harvest season in October into a source of fear and danger. Many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank describe this year as the worst yet in terms of settler attacks, and the season has barely started. On Wednesday, armed Israeli settlers on tractors raided lands between the villages of Ramin and Burqa, in the northern occupied West Bank....