As War Rages, Israeli Settlers and Soldiers Try to Block the Palestinian Olive Harvest
Far-right politicians like Bezalel Smotrich have joined forces with West Bank settlers in the campaign – as violence against Palestinian farmers ramps up on this front
A Palestinian farmer carries olives at an olive grove in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
These days in November are normally the peak of the Palestinian olive harvest in the West Bank; entire families spend days bringing in the crop and holding picnics in this ritual of both work and pleasure. Then the farmers and family members send the olives to presses to produce olive oil.
But for years now, the harvest has been marred by violent assaults by settlers. And this year some farmers have simply given up amid recurring threats from settlers, a campaign by Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, restrictions on movement by settlers or the army, and a sharp rise in violence.
The underlying sentiment can be seen in far-right WhatsApp groups. A screenshot from one shows the message “Warning, this isn’t a harvest, this is the next murder. On Route 505, 200 meters east of Migdalim Junction, ‘harvesters’ are just a few meters from the road.”
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A link was attached providing the exact location where the far-rightists believed they had spotted Palestinians picking olives. In another message, a member of the group wrote “olive harvest warning!” and attached a list of locations and an instruction to report other locations to the local emergency hotline.
A Palestinian farmer in an olive grove in Deir Istiya, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
The threats weren’t confined to WhatsApp. “Masked people wearing army pants come, and sometimes soldiers; we can’t tell the difference,” Lafi Shalabi, head of the Turmus Ayya village council near the Shiloh settlement bloc, told Haaretz last week. “They tell us while they’re brandishing their guns: ‘If we see you one more time, we’ll shoot you.’”
The village was in the headlines in June after settlers set fires there and vandalized property. Shalabi estimates that 80 percent of the villagers didn’t harvest their olives this year. This appraisal joins the 99 reported incidents of violence, blocked access and destroyed property this season, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
By comparison, in all of last year, just 38 incidents were recorded. In 18 of the cases from this year, soldiers chased olive harvesters out of areas where the farmers were not required to coordinate with the army beforehand.
The rights group Haqel says that in the Shiloh Valley in the northern West Bank, an area where Palestinian olive farmers are required to coordinate, the army hasn’t scheduled any dates for harvesting olives. Farmers from the small town of Deir Istiya add that they haven’t received any dates for picking olives in areas that require coordination.
A road leading to the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya which was blocked, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
‘A huge number of Arabs’
The campaign to prevent the harvest is not being waged solely by members of the “hilltop youth” activists for illegal Israeli outposts. Last week Smotrich, who is finance minister, sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant entitled “The continued abandonment of the security of settlers in Judea and Samaria” – the West Bank.
In the letter, Smotrich said the army was letting Palestinians pick olives near roads and settlements, areas where Palestinians harvest olives every year. He also called for the creation of “sterile security zones around the communities and roads” and the “blocking of entry to these areas by Arabs, including for the olive harvest.”
Religious Zionism MK Tzvi Succot, who was recently appointed chairman of the Knesset subcommittee on West Bank affairs, sent a similar letter to Gallant calling for a ban on olive harvesting near settlements.
A screenshot from a Whatsapp group of far right activists, where Palestinian olive groves are being discussed.
Succot told Haaretz that his main concern was the potential for intelligence gathering under cover of the harvest. “When Palestinians come near the communities, the residents fear that maybe some of them are exploiting this to gather intelligence and plan a terror attack,” he said.
At the end of last month, when a Palestinian seriously wounded a settler near the settlement of Rimonim, settlers said the attack occurred under cover of the olive harvest, but Yesh Din says the main violence is the spate of settler attacks on Palestinians picking olives.
Succot countered: “The thing in general is that Jews are in these communities and are mainly afraid of dying.” He added: “There are extreme incidents, I don’t deny that, but if somebody comes and says that what’s happening today in Judea and Samaria is that settlers are attacking Arabs, he’s radically distorting the reality.”
In a press release Succot issued about the letter, and in a recent report on right-wing Channel 14, it was alleged that the murder of the Fogel family in 2011 was made possible by the olive harvest. Those killings – a mother, father and three of their six children – took place in March, but the settlers say one of the perpetrators surveilled the family’s house months before during the harvest.
Israeli volunteers hold olives at the village of Deir Istiya, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
Succot and Channel 14's effort was joined this month by a group calling itself Wives of Reservist Soldiers Judea and Samaria. With the aid of a PR firm that also represents clients such as the right-wing group Honenu and the Samaria Regional Council in the West Bank, the wives called on the army to halt the olive harvest near settlements “at a time when 80 percent of the men in these communities have been called up for reserve duty.”
On Channel 14, Yiska Cohen, who was introduced as the organizer of the wives' forum, was quoted as saying, “I just got on the road and saw huge numbers of cars, a huge number of Arabs picking olives. And we all know that every olive harvester could also be something else.”
‘Wait for the big Nakba’
Deir Istiya has 26,000 dunams (6,420 acres) of olive groves, according to the local council. Some of them are very old, while others were planted in the last decade. Some of the families still earn their livelihood from farming; the harvest is a major event for them.
But since the war with Hamas in Gaza broke out on October 7, many West Bank farmers have been blocked from their olive groves because the plots are near main roads used by settlers.
Israeli volunteers work at an olive grove at the village of Deir Istiya, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
For the villagers, the danger hit home about two weeks ago in an incident involving 54-year-old Ayoub Abu Hajla, a former member of the local council. Abu Hajla told Haaretz last week that he had visited his plot next to the road to pick olives when a settler suddenly approached him.
“He said to me, ‘What are you doing here? Don’t you know you’re not allowed to be here?’” Abu Hajla says, adding that the settler then “punched my friend who was with me in the head and broke some of his teeth, and also beat up a cabdriver who was nearby.”
When the villagers returned to their cars, they discovered threatening notes in Arabic on the windshields. “You wanted war, just wait for the big Nakba,” one note said, referring to the flight and expulsion of 700,000 Arabs during Israel's 1947-49 War of Independence.
Ayoub Abu Hajla, a former member of Deir Istiya's local council. 'He said to me, ‘What are you doing here? Don’t you know you’re not allowed to be here?'” Abu Hajla says.
Another added: “You have a last chance to flee to Jordan in an organized way. Otherwise we’ll expel you from our holy lands that God bequeathed to us.”
The villagers also cite two other incidents that pushed them away from the road. In one, a settler fired at the legs of a person picking olives. In the other, an armed settler blocked the way of a cabdriver approaching the area.
Still, a week ago Saturday, one family mustered the courage to pick olives next to the main road. They were accompanied by 30 Israeli volunteers – without whom they wouldn’t have been so bold, they say.
“Most of the olives right by the road people don’t harvest,” says one member of the family, a man named Raslan. Activists from the area say that other times soldiers chased away Palestinians who tried to pick olives next to the road.
Settlers' tractor near Deir Istiya, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
According to veteran activist Aviv Tatarsky, this year’s threats and extreme violence mean the villagers need the help of more activists than ever; they arrive at the locations in larger groups. “Without volunteers, we wouldn’t get here at all,” Raslan says.
For years, Israel has been requiring Palestinians to coordinate with the army before they visit their plots near settlements. This year, according to a man named Shalabi from Turmus Ayya, soldiers are restricting access to plots where the local Palestinians hitherto didn’t need coordination. The access roads to the land have been blocked by the army or settlers, he says.
“Residents are coming to me and asking what can be done,” Shalabi says. “I can’t tell people to go by helicopter. What will happen to them? It’s dangerous. We didn’t have this problem before.”
Among the many stories, one is that of Bilal Salah, 40, from the village of Sawiya near Nablus in the northern West Bank. Late last month, Salah was shot dead, allegedly by a soldier on leave, as Salah was picking olives near the settlement of Rehelim.
The soldier, who is suspected of reckless homicide and illegal use of a weapon, says he fired because he feared for his life when people threw stones at him. Military prosecutors say they have significant evidence showing otherwise, but the soldier's detention was not extended after five days in jail and five when he was confined to an army base. The soldier was then released to take part in operations as usual.
Tamer Abed al-Jabbar al-Qadi, last Saturday. 'Soldiers have told us that we're prohibited from going there and it's a closed military area.'Credit: Moti Milrod
In the decision to release him to the base, the military judge said that, regarding the suspect’s claim of feeling in danger, the events of October 7 cannot be ignored.
“The vigilance to which we are commanded by the blood of our brothers and sisters who fell for the sanctity of the land and the defense of the homeland is a real obligation,” the judge wrote, adding that the situation could also “dictate mistakes.”
Meanwhile, there are entire areas that no Palestinians dare approach; for example, at Deir Istiya’s vineyards and olive groves near the shepherds’ outpost. Here too, during a visit by Haaretz this month, villagers were asked to stay away from these plots near the settlement of Immanuel.
Also, after the war broke out, the villagers discovered that the access road to the plots had been destroyed. Later, the road was also blocked by boulders and earthworks. During a visit by Haaretz to the site a week ago Saturday, it was clear that containers holding the villagers’ agricultural equipment had been looted.
A Palestinian farmer collects olives in an olive grove near Deir Istiya, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
“Since then, soldiers have told us that we're prohibited from going there and it's a closed military area,” says Tamer Abed al-Jabbar al-Qadi, 43. “In the past, the whole family would go there with the girls and my mother. We would sit and eat and drink, enjoying ourselves until the evening,” he says.
Residents say that about two weeks ago settlers and soldiers detained for about five hours three Palestinian shepherds who visited the area. They say the settlers and soldiers warned them not to return, took their phones and kicked them.
Earlier this month, Abu Hajla visited the area with journalists from the American radio station NPR. He says that shortly after they arrived, a drone flew overhead, and four soldiers later showed up.
“They asked me for my ID, told me that this was a closed area and then handcuffed me, blindfolded me and put me in an army jeep,” Abu Hajla says, adding that he managed to see two settlers wearing army uniforms on an off-road vehicle. “The settler told me, ‘Forget about your land,’” he says.
An area near Deir Istiya which was sealed, last weekend.Credit: Moti Milrod
Abu Hajla says he was later taken to the army base at Kedumim in the West Bank, where was left handcuffed and blindfolded for five hours. He says he was asked why he had brought over journalists, and the handcuffs were so tight he was in pain for days.
Abu Hajla was released in the middle of the village near the army base. He says he has not dared go near the area since.
As for an offer to coordinate his trips to the area with the army, he says: “I don’t want to coordinate to go to land where in the past I didn't have to ask for coordination. In the future, I’ll have to coordinate to go to the bathroom.”
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit says: “The security forces and Civil Administration are taking all measures necessary to maintain the security of the people and Israeli settlements while maintaining the rights of the local residents, including offering the option of harvesting at the plots they own.
“The security forces are evaluating the situation and security coordination is being carried out in the field, especially in harvest areas near the roads, Israeli settlements and other centers that require coordination and close security provided by the forces. In cases where the security forces breach orders, the incidents are investigated. If we receive complaints, they are handled accordingly.”
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