Why settler intimidation of West Bank farmers is about far more than the olive harvest | West Bank

The olive trees cover the dry, rocky slopes around Deir Istiya, spreading deep into the valley to its west, lining the main roads, filling the gardens, and shading its graveyards.

But many farmers in the historical Palestinian town, deep in the occupied West Bank, say that this year they have been unable to harvest much of the vital olive crop, blaming an intensifying campaign of intimidation and violence by people from the half-dozen Israeli settlements and outposts nearby.

Ibrahim Abu Hijleh, 30, a farmer whose small olive grove is 200 metres from Revava, a settlement built in the 1990s, said he was able to reach his olive grove only for a few hours in November when accompanied by Israeli activists and a Palestinian Israeli member of parliament.

“I got about 10% of the harvest and now we need to trim and tend the trees,” he said. “I keep trying to go back but people come from the settlement and tell us to leave and threaten us.”

Last month the UN said Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank that resulted in casualties or property damage had at least tripled during the 2024 olive harvest season compared with each of the preceding three years.

Between 1 October and 25 November, the UN documented 250 settler-related incidents across 88 West Bank communities, with 57 Palestinians injured by settlers and 11 by Israeli forces. More than 2,800 trees –mostly slow-growing olive trees – were burned, sawed-off, or vandalised, and there was significant theft of crops and harvesting tools, it said.

In October, in the most high-profile attack, a 59-year-old woman was killed while harvesting olives in Faqqua, near Jenin, by a soldier who fired about 10 shots at her. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they are investigating.

Olives are the largest single agricultural product in the West Bank, and up to a third of the Palestinian population of the West Bank is estimated to work with the trees or their produce, such as oil and soap.

Before the Hamas attack of 7 October last year, the olive harvest in areas of the West Bank under Israeli control was for the most part coordinated by local Palestinian authorities and the Israeli military to allow farmers to reach their trees on specific dates. In its aftermath, Palestinians say access to their own land has been severely limited.

This year, at least officially, some restrictions were partly lifted, with farmers supposedly allowed to reach groves within 200 metres of Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under most interpretations of international law.

Farmers in Deir Istiya said they were often stopped by intimidation by settlers or by the IDF, which cited “closed military zone” orders.

“Olives are 90% of our economy as a town. We have a few oranges and lemons but they, too, are surrounded by settlements and very difficult to get to,” said Khaled Yusuf Abu Hijleh, 60, the deputy mayor. “There have been problems for a long time. The bigger the settlements get, the more pressure they exert. It’s our land.”

Palestinians in the West Bank are already facing acute economic crisis, with unemployment reaching record highs and the poverty rate doubling to 28%, according to the World Bank.

The level of harassment and intimidation of olive farmers varies across the West Bank, with some reporting few or no problems.

Abdul Haleem Mansoor, a farmer in Deir Istiya whose olives are far from any settlements, said he had managed to harvest all his olives. “I was harvesting and the soldiers said it was OK but told me not to go near any settlements,” the 60-year-old said.

Majdi Sahaban, another Deir Istiya farmer, said he had been unable to approach his trees. “We work this land but it doesn’t make us rich,” Sahaban, 28, said.

Israel’s government, which includes far-right parties and ministers with strong links to the settlement movement, has backed the settlers and their claims, despite repeated international calls to rein them in.

Last month, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, said Donald Trump’s election in the US offered Israel the opportunity to advance Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which was occupied by Israel in 1967 during the Six Day war.

Activists say efforts to disrupt the olive harvest are part of a broader campaign in the West Bank to force Palestinians off their land and out of their homes as a precursor to annexation.

“The aim is to make all open spaces unsafe for Palestinians, so grazing lands and olive groves are important,” said Aviv Tatarsky, an Israeli who has been visiting Deir Istiya for 15 years as part of a solidarity group.

Many of Deir Istiya’s olive groves lie between settlements pushing deep into the West Bank from Israel. The biggest, Ariel, has more than 20,000 residents.

The UK passed sanctions on one nearby settler outpost in October for “facilitating, inciting, promoting or providing support for activity that amounts to a serious abuse of the right of Palestinians not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Settlers, however, say they regularly come under attack from villagers and are acting in self-defence.

All involved in the conflict in Deir Istiya and the surrounding settlements recognise that the olives and trees have more than commercial value. The harvest is a time for festivities, as well as hard work, and the olive tree has long been a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

“Olives means a life, and it means a land,” said Ayub Ibrahim Abu Hijleh, 54, who has been unable to reach 370 trees planted on family land close to the large settlement of Emmanuel nearly a decade ago.

“Olive trees are a holy tree, an economic tree … and the settlers understand about the olive trees, too. They know what it symbolises.”