Olive harvest in Ni‘lin (Photo: PMRS)

The month of October is famous for its olive harvest all over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. After facing a bad olive season last year due to drought, people have long been waiting this years olive harvest, which will provide them with those products (olives and olive oil) that are essential to secure their income. However, for many Palestinians this olive harvest again seems to result in disappointment. Although it is not the drought that spoils the harvest, it is Israeli bullets and aggression that disenables people from reaching their trees.

Problems erupt in those areas where the olive groves are confiscated or where the olive field‘s border illegally established Israeli settlements. Unfortunately, of the more than one million olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers feeding about 100,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, most of these groves are located next to the Israeli settlements. In these areas violence is prone to erupt. In fact, as reported by Ma‘an news, this years olive harvest has resulted in numerous acts of violence perpetrated by extremist settler groups against Palestinian farmers. In comparison to last years, settler attacks are even reaching a peak during this years olive harvest.

Not only Palestinians encounter violence in their fields, also internationals such as peace activists, journalists and photographers were targets for Jewish settlers. Al Jazeera reported that settlers were caught on video when punching and kicking internationals helping Palestinians pick olives near Hebron Saturday the 18th of October.

Settlers claim the trees are on Israeli land and the harvest is illegal. An interesting perspective, taking into account that the establishment of the settlements and thus the presence of the settlers is ruled illegal under international law. Nonetheless, the construction of the settlements continues, which leads to the extension of the Separation wall in order to "protect" these settlements, which leads to the deployment of Israeli soldiers to West Bank villages, which leads to more olive-related clashes involving Israeli military, equipped with guns, ammunition, tear gas, sound bombs, etc. This was the scene of this years olive harvest in the village of Ni‘lin.

Ni‘lin: The devastating impact of the wall on the olive harvest

Ni’lin’s olive fields are located in close proximity to the nearby settlements which are currently being shielded off from the village by a new part of the Separation wall that is in the process of being erected. The wall will deprive the people from Ni’lin of their freedom of movement and will confiscate the olive lands of the villagers, thereby taking from them their main source of income.

Friday the 10th of October, the village of Ni‘lin prepared itself for the yearly olive harvest. Many international activists attempted to reach the village in order to accompany the Palestinians to their fields. However, Israeli military closed down the entrance of the village by declaring it a closed military zone, thereby hampering access of internationals as well as ambulances and medical first aid staff into the village.

As people finally reached the village by taking a long detour to circumvent Israeli roadblocks, and started to move into the direction of the olive trees situated on confiscated land, Israeli military immediately responded by the usual violence employed against anti-wall protesters. In their random manner, soldiers began shooting sound bombs and teargas grenades, whilst in the background bulldozers continued to clear the area by uprooting olive trees for the sake of the wall.

The clashes went on for hours, thereby causing men, women, children, and first aid workers to suffer serious inhalation problems, when experiencing the burning and suffocating effects of the teargas. Moreover, ambulance teams of both the Red Crescent and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society experienced problems. They were hampered from moving freely and where even misused by Israeli soldiers as shields to force people to leave the area. At the end of the day, ambulances and personnel were prevented from departing.

Israeli soldiers abuse PMRS ambulance when employing it as shield to target Palestinians with teargas (Photo: PMRS).

They underwent check-ups and interrogations, after which they could finally proceed and leave the area. Together with the ambulances, Ni‘lin‘s people left their fields and returned home. Instead of carrying bags filled with olives after a day of hard work, they returned home empty handed, wounded and disappointed.In Palestinian society, the olives and the olive tree do not only signify income, they carry with them strong symbolic ties. Recently Salam Fayyad called the olive tree “a symbol of the determination of the Palestinian people to stay on their land and to preserve and defend it.” Time and again, the people of Ni‘lin –with the support of a variety of people from outside- have proven steadfast and resilient in their struggle for their lands and their valuable olive trees; not slightest disencouraged, people attempted to reach their fields again the following week to pick their olives with the help of primarily doctors and first aid staff.

Doctors picking olives in solidarity

In the early hours of Friday the 17th of October, a medical delegation consisting of staff members from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) and volunteers, led by Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, set off to the village of Ni’lin to help the villagers harvest their olive trees on the confiscated lands.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi passes Israeli security lines to pick olives on the illegally confiscated lands near the settlement. (Photo: PMRS)

As people where trying to reach their lands in vain- as during the previous week- Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP succeeded in negotiating a small victory. The soldiers, arguably surprised by the unusual composition of the delegation, allowed a one-and-a-half-hour access to those lands beyond reach. Dr. Barghouthi set off with a small delegation of five people to pick olives form the trees located next to the settlement. However, all other participants where prevented from reaching those lands. Instead, they where targeted with the usual teargas, rubber bullets and sound bombs. One man was shot with two rubber bullets; one in his chest and the other in his leg. Under critical conditions, he was transported to Sheikh Zayed hospital in Ramallah. Many others suffered serious inhalation problems whilst being targeted with teargas.

Under these circumstances it remains close to impossible to proceed with the olive harvest. In spite of the tireless efforts of the people of Ni‘lin to claim their rights and to fight against injustice in their attempt to proceed with the harvest, it seems that millions of olives will be left to waste this year and even more once the wall will be completed.

In this way, Israel steadily attempts to remove Palestinian presence. By creating facts on the ground, Isreal literally uproots historical Palestinian attachment to the land and thus the proof of the Palestinian legitimate claims to the territory. However, under International law, these are illegal practices that are surprisingly not called to a halt, even though these acts take place on a large scale and highly visible to all those who are brave enough to keep their eyes open to reality.

If international law is to be taken seriously, it should be implemented equally to all human beings who do not obey by it, regardless of race, religion, political affiliation or the sort. All those who commit criminal acts that are against international treaties and conventions as anchored in international law should be called upon to account for their acts, they should be forced to respect the law and all perpetrators should face equal punishment according to international guidelines in order to halt impunity; even if that perpetrator is called "Israel".