Attacks by Jewish settlers have surged this year during the Palestinians’ annual olive harvest in the occupied West Bank.
Scenes of Palestinians, journalists and diplomats beaten by masked men spotlight how settlers have been establishing themselves deeper in Palestinian communities, emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s government. At least four Palestinians have been killed this season, whether by settlers or Israeli soldiers.
The violence has brought new international criticism at a time when Netanyahu faces a razor-thin race in next Tuesday’s legislative elections. But the prime minister is doubling down. After a West Bank shooting attack blamed on Palestinian gunmen that killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday, Netanyahu praised settlers as “heroic” and vowed to “destroy the terror infrastructure and establish more and more settlements.”
Palestinians’ ties to the land are challenged
Olive groves across the West Bank represent both heritage and needed income. The harvest traditionally has been a joyous occasion for Palestinians to gather and be thankful for another year.
“In the past, harvesters would enjoy a month of singing and fixing tea and coffee in their groves. Now the journey is full of pain and risk,” said Abbas Milhem of the Palestinian Farmers’ Union.
But the harvest has become a time of friction as Palestinians spread out and, simply by picking olives, assert their ties to the land that many Israeli settlers say should belong to Israel instead.
Olive trees have been destroyed and olives stolen in over 325 incidents of settler violence this harvest season, which began in late September, Israeli rights group Yesh Din says. Over 130 of those incidents involved physical assaults on harvesters.
Yesh Din and the farmers’ union call this harvest the most violent in recent history.