Palestinians are once again having to defend their own olive trees during harvesting season from Israeli settler vandalism while Israeli soldiers stand by.
The settlers’ attacks aim to dismantle the deep-rooted relationship between the Palestinian people and their home land.
The Imran family is one of the Palestinian families who own more than 40 dunums of olive trees in the vicinity of the Zionist settlements in the occupied city of Nablus.
Unlike every year the family was forced to appoint other olive pickers in order to complete the harvest as early as possible for fear of any settler attacks.
Imran told a PIC reporter that the Israeli occupation prevented his family from the joy of olive harvest.
He further pointed out that Israeli settlers burned and cut down 84 olive trees in his land and removed 20 other trees near his land.
In another attack the settlers burned 37 olive trees in his land two months ago.
Ghassan Daghlas who is in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank said that the settlers’ attacks on the olive harvest rose by more than 150% compared to last year.
Daghlas reported more than 76 settler attacks on olive trees in the northern West Bank.
He further pointed out that most of the attacks are carried out under Israeli occupation forces’ protection.
Marked in October every year the olive harvest constitutes a critical source of livelihood for thousands of Palestinian families.
With more than 12 million olive trees planted across nearly half of the West Bank’s agricultural land olive oil is not only central to Palestinian food security but is also a large part of their export economy.
