מסיק זיתים 2004

About the importance of the harvest.

Olive groves bear not only symbolic significance for the two peoples of this country: they are no less than a lifeline, an existential infrastructure for the rural Palestinian population in the West Bank. Their importance has increased even more in view of the extensive unemployment that has by now hit over half of the working force, and the fact that over 60% of the Palestinians live under the poverty line. Economists have shown that the policy of closure and siege, destruction of infrastructures, denial of Palestinians’ movement on “settlers only” roads, and especially – the construction of fences and enclaves – are responsible for the devastation of everyday life. The destruction of Palestinian economy has thus turned the olive groves into an important economic resource. This year’s harvest is especially bountiful, but the prices of olive oil are low. Because of the reduction in purchasing power, some of last year’s oil has not yet been sold. Therefore, solidarity action does not begin and end with the act of picking olives, but includes assistance in marketing the oil.

In the past few weeks we have seen our darkest fears come true. The settles have been molesting the harvest more and more violently. A Palestinian from the village of Asira al Kabiliya was shot dead, murdered, during the olive harvest in the village of En Abus. Attacks and beatings of olive pickers have taken place in different places in the West Bank (by settelrs from Yitzhar, Tapuach and others) and in the South Hebron hills. Theft and looting have been observed at many sites. This is not merely brutality towards an occupied people: these attacks against harvesters and the theft of olives are a component  in a daily ongoing campaign of the settlers to dispossess Palestinian communities of their lands and livelihood. The expansion of settlements affects entire surrounding areas in which the Palestinians are prohibited to cultivate their own land for fear that they might become a “security hazard” for their perpetrators.

Furthermore, a system of fences now separates thousands of Palestinian farmers from their fields and groves. There are farming gates fixed along the fences, but these are opened for a mere few hours at a time, at the army’s whim. Special passes are necessary in order to cross them, and the army and the civil administration allot the farmers few days in which to work their fields. The need for special permits exposes the population to pressure to collaborate and directs control within the villages to various middlemen and elders whom the authorities wish to favor. A considerable part of the population in the Occupied Territories is considered “passage-denied” (according to estimates, about 40%!) and is not permitted to cross the gates. Thus thousands of farmers must stand and watch their olive groves across the fence. All of these difficulties and limitations immediately mean great losses of harvest, and in the long run – loss of the lands themselves. Note that much of the land – according to an old Ottoman regulation – is under special legal status (“Miri” land). This means that land that is not cultivated for 3 years becomes state-owned.

The army, for its part, does not control the settlers. Instead, it imposes a very limited quota of harvesting days on the farmers – a mere 3 days per village – in the areas close to settlements. It has defined “friction areas” with the settlers. In many villages, most of the groves have been marked such “friction areas”. Obviously, 6 weeks of intensive olive harvesting cannot be compressed into 3 work days, not to mention the fact that come winter, postponing the harvest until the allotted date threatens the entire harvest. And so, instead of quenching the settlers’ aggressions and preventing them from their looting and revenge raids – the army turns the Palestinians into hostages of the settlers’ threats. The settlers are instrumental to more closure upon the Palestinian population. Thus the army’s Draconian limitations combine perfectly with the settlers’ moves whose aim is evident: expansion of settlements, crowding the Palestinians out of their villages and robbing their lands.

Hence the extra significance of participating in this year’s harvest. On the Palestinian side, a wide coalition has formed for the harvest, including labor unions, women’s organizations, and human rights’ organizations. The direct assistance in this harvest goes to the families who till their own plots. These are not equal in size. In many villages, some of the residents do not own olive groves and thus do not benefit directly from the harvest. In addition, many of the harvesters are tenants who owe a considerable part of the harvest to their landowners. It is important to keep this in mind, as in spite of the fact that not all villagers benefit directly from the harvest, participation in it is a show of active solidarity with all people suffering under the Occupation, working hand in hand during these days so filled with bloodshed. Participation in the harvest strengthens the communities in their struggle to survive, and also points to the systematic hostility they suffer and its causes – the Occupation, the fencing, the ongoing dispossession that threatens the common future of both peoples.

Left-wing activists not allowed to help olive-pickers, by Nir Hasson, Ha'aretz, 16 October 2004

Ugly war over West Bank Crop by James Shaw, BBC, Jerusalem, 19 October 2004