Every October during the olive season, Abdullah Samhan heads with his family to their land in the village of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi, west of Ramallah, to pick olives.
At the beginning of last month, he and his family were filled with joy as they headed to their land to kick-start the olive harvest season.
However, this joyful experience quickly turned distressing, as the illegal settlers had other plans for this Palestinian family.
Over 50 armed Israeli illegal settlers attacked Palestinian families on the western side of the village, in an attempt to force them to leave at gunpoint.
‘Like Monsters’
When the Palestinian villagers refused to leave, the illegal settlers began beating them, disregarding the presence of children and women.
“They attacked us and beat us with thick iron sticks. They didn’t care about the screams of children and women. They were like monsters!” Abdullah Samhan told the Palestine Chronicle.
As a result, 13 Palestinian villagers sustained injuries, fractures, and bruises that day, including a child under seven and three women. The illegal settlers did not stop there, they also stole olives that the villagers had harvested and threatened them.
According to Samhan, the Israeli occupation army helped the illegal settlers to expel the villagers from their lands.
“Every year we suffer during the olive harvest season and we are always threatened by settlers, but this year they were armed and more violent and attacked us immediately,” he added.
The Israeli occupation authorities have already controlled large areas of the village’s lands in service of illegal settlements.
Today, illegal Jewish settlers, with the protection of the occupation army, are trying to seize additional olive-planted lands, preventing Palestinians from accessing their fields to claim instead.
Non-Stop Harassment
Despite years of harassment during the olive-picking season, Palestinians have faced an alarming increase in settler attacks this year.
Dozens of incidents were reported throughout October, including beatings, verbal assaults, aggressions, and crop theft at gunpoint.
The illegal Jewish settlers know very well how crucial the olive harvest season is to the Palestinian people, especially since olive oil is a staple in Palestinian cuisine, so this year they have intensified their attacks to discourage Palestinians from accessing their fields.
Palestinians recognize the systematic harassment by illegal settlers as a tactic to eventually confiscate and annex their lands to illegal settlements.
‘Israel Doesn’t See Us’
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli soldiers and settlers carried out 90 attacks against Palestinian farmers from the beginning of the olive harvest season in October until the 24th.
According to a statement by the commission, the attacks and violations included live ammunition and tear gas fired at farmers, restrictions on access to fields, and military orders resulting in arrests.
Some of these military orders closed agricultural fields near illegal settlements, preventing farmers from reaching their olive groves, according to the commission.
For its part, in an October report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that Israel is using “war-like” tactics against farmers and olive groves in the occupied West Bank.
The report emphasized that these attacks not only target people but also the olive groves, which represent an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of Palestinian families in the West Bank.
The village of Madama, south of Nablus, has been among the hardest hit by settler violence this year.
Head of the Village Council, Abdullah Ziadeh, told the Palestine Chronicle that settlers have attacked the village almost daily since the olive harvest season began.
Alongside the Israeli army, settlers have expelled Palestinian farmers, stolen olives and personal belongings, and assaulted villagers.
The settlement of Yitzhar was established on the southern side of Madama, occupying thousands of dunams of village land. The village is also encircled by a large settlement road, further consuming vast areas of land.
Despite the obstacles, Madama’s villagers continue to cultivate their remaining fields, but the attacks are concentrated on these agricultural areas to eventually take control of them.
“The settlers who attack us are all armed, and we don’t distinguish them from the soldiers, and they don’t even need the army’s protection. Their attacks greatly affected us. For example, one of the plots usually produces 320 kilos of olive oil, but its owner was denied access to it,” Ziadeh explained.
The head of the village council revealed that before the olive harvest season started, the Israeli army and settlers burned 20 percent of the village’s olive trees, with 70 percent of these areas falling within Area B, under both Palestinian and Israeli control.
“We contacted all relevant organizations and the Palestinian Authority, but unfortunately the situation is very bad. Israel doesn’t see us and only wants to deport us, disregarding any international law,” Ziadeh concluded.
–Fayha’ Shalash is a Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist. She graduated from Birzeit University in 2008 and she has been working as a reporter and broadcaster ever since. Her articles appeared in several online publications. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
