The Palestinian dates harvest season is scheduled to start in Jericho and the Jordan Valley at the end of August and lasts until September amid expectations of an abundant season.
Labelling the Israeli settlement dates origin as Palestinian to bypass boycotts of settlement goods is just one of many obstacles facing this year’s harvest.
The pressure from Palestinian Authority (PA) officials to seize the harvest is another problem for Palestinian farmers.
Employees of the PA Ministries of Finance and Agriculture as well as the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas were found to have participated in promoting settlement dates as Palestinian dates about a year and a half ago according to a local investigation.
According to the report the incident involved at least three Ministry of Agriculture employees one employee of the Ministry of Finance and a member of Abbas’s office.
Since settlement dates are produced first the scandal was only made public because dates from the settlements were collected and exported to Turkey as Palestinian harvest even though they had not yet been produced at the time.
The Palestinian agricultural economy relies heavily on the date harvest which generates between $35 and $40 million in exports annually.
There are 311000 palm trees in the West Bank according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and this number rises yearly as a result of the expansion of this significant agricultural sector.
Palestinian dates are exported to 27 countries mainly Turkey. Particularly since the Turkish government exempted 3000 tons of Palestinian dates from customs half of the Palestinian harvest of dates is exported to Turkey.
Palestinians consume 60% of the harvest while 40% is exported to other countries despite fierce Israeli competition on both domestic and international markets.
The Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN) a Palestinian NGO that seeks to combat corruption and promote integrity transparency and accountability in Palestinian society had earlier exposed the involvement of employees in the office of the PA President in a corruption case concerning dates produced in West Bank settlements.
The report also affirmed the involvement of those officials in &ldquowhitewashing&rdquo dates produced in settlements in the West Bank.
