Family handoutOn a Thursday afternoon late last month, a 59-year-old Palestinian woman went out to gather olives on her family’s land near the village of Faqqa, north of the occupied West Bank.
This was the work that Hanan Abu Salama had done for decades.
Within minutes, the mother of seven and grandmother of 14 was lying dead in the dirt of an olive grove, shot in the chest – shot by an Israeli soldier.
Although the family had coordinated their intention to take the olives with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to her son Faris and husband Hossam, the soldier fired several shots as other family members ran for cover.
The IDF says it is investigating the incident, but Hanan’s grieving relatives have little hope or expectation that her killer will be brought to justice.
This was not an isolated incident.
Olive harvesting is an ancient ritual and economic necessity for many Palestinians, but according to the United Nations, it is becoming increasingly precarious.
Farmers in the West Bank – internationally regarded as Palestinian land occupied by Israel – face serious threats, such as systematic attacks by Israeli settlers to sabotage the olive harvest, road with the use of force by Israeli security forces to prevent and prevent Palestinian access. their lands
“Last year we couldn’t even grow our own olives, except for a very small amount,” says Umar Tanatara, a farmer in Umm Safa village.
“At one point, the army came, threw the olives we had already collected on the ground, and ordered us to go home,” says Omar, who is also a member of the village council.
“Some people were even shot at and the olive trees were sawed off – that’s how we found them later,” says Omar, as he and other villagers prepare to harvest this year’s harvest from their remaining trees. A small hand-held rake is used for .
Even when Israeli and international workers accompany the villagers to the olive groves, hoping to stem the danger, there is no guarantee of safety.
Soraya Haddad naturally cringes when we watch a video of the incident in which a masked man breaks her ribs with a large stick.
The Israeli peace activist was helping Palestinian farmers pick olives when she was attacked unprovoked.
Instead of arresting his assailant, Israeli soldiers, who had arrived at the site with settlers, simply told him to move on.
“Even when we come to help, it doesn’t guarantee that the Palestinians can harvest their own olives,” Zoraya tells me as she recovers from her injuries at home.
“We try to raise awareness, but in the end what happens is that the settlers steal the olives or cut down the trees, or they are not chosen and are lost.”
The land is at the heart of a decades-old dispute between Israel and the Palestinians – over who controls it and who has access to it.
For thousands of Palestinian families and villages, growing and harvesting olives is a major part of their economy.
But many say that, in recent times, access to trees on their land has been blocked, often with violence by Israeli settlers.
The United Nations says hundreds of trees – which can take years to reach fruit-bearing maturity – have been deliberately burned or cut down.
In 2023, 96,000 dunams (about 96 sq km; 37 sq mi) of olive groves in the West Bank were also left uncultivated due to Israeli restrictions on access to Palestinian farmers.
After being collected by hand, Umm Safa villagers take sacks full of olives to a nearby factory, where the presses have restarted this season.
Olives are the most important agricultural product in the West Bank. In a good year, they are worth more than $70m (£54m) to the Palestinian economy.
Factory owner Abdul Rahman Khalifa says last year’s income was well below average and this year will be even worse, as few farmers are able to harvest their crops due to settler attacks.
“Let me give you an example,” he tells me.
“My brother-in-law in Lebanon – with the Israelite settlement – went to get his olives, but they broke his arms and left him with all the people who lived with him.”
As Palestinians we don’t have petrol or big companies. Our main agricultural crop is olives,” he adds. “So, just as the Gulf depends on oil, and on American business, our economy depends on the olive tree.”
On a hill overlooking the olive groves of Umm Safa is an illegal settlers’ outpost – a farm.
The extremist settler who runs it, Zvi Bar Yosef, was arrested this year by Britain and other Western governments for repeated acts of violence against Palestinians, including twice threatening families at gunpoint. was approved.
During the last year of the war in Gaza, Jewish settlers have been encouraged by the support of far-right Israeli ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir.
As national security minister, he has given free firearms to hundreds of settlers and encouraged them to assert their right to – what he says – is their “God-given” land. .
Ben Guerre has also been accused of openly advocating the disruption of olive harvests on Palestinian land.
At the olive press, farmers wait patiently in the yard to witness the transformation of the olives they have been able to harvest this year into “liquid gold.”
The olive tree has been a symbol of this land for centuries.
For generations of Palestinians, it has been their link to the land – a link that is now more than ever under threat.
