Restricted access to land in West Bank undermines olive harvest
Audio 01:28
Olive harvest in Jenin, Palestinian Territories (illustrative image).
Getty Images / Aldo Pavan
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In the West Bank, the olive harvest is in full swing.
It is an important time of the year for Palestinians to spend with their families.
However, this season too often turns into a nightmare because of the ritualized attacks of Israeli settlers, vandalized trees or because of the lack of access to their olive groves.
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With our special correspondent in Qaffin,
Alice Froussard
This is the case for all owners with land in the "Seam Zone", that place between the separation wall and the green line: there are many fields of olive trees, olives ready to be harvested, but there are There is a concrete road in front of it, fences and a checkpoint with a yellow barrier.
In Qaffin, the separation wall, built 20 years ago, separates the inhabitants from their land, explains Taysir Harashe, the former mayor of the village. “
The story of this wall is that it confiscates 450 hectares of the village of Qaffin, even though it is built more than 2 km from the border. And if the Israelis gave 2,500 permits at the start of the wall, now we have more than 150.
"
Permits are needed for Palestinians to access their land and thus harvest their olives, their main source of income.
Yet 73% of permit applications are rejected by the Israeli army, according to the Israeli NGO HaMoked.
And this, again for arbitrary reasons, even for the Palestinians who have obtained the precious sesame, access is reduced.
The crossing point is open three times for 15 minutes during the day.
"
A Kafkaesque situation, which is detrimental to the
harvest
,"
admits Jihad Harashe, 70, one of the farmers.
I used to get 50 gallons of oil here.
There, more than 2 or 3. Suddenly, I had to create a small store because I am the only one to obtain a permit, my wife and my children did not manage to have one.
"
The rest of the year, the checkpoint is only open three days a week.
“
It's too little to maintain the earth.
And impossible if we have other fruits to harvest,
”adds Jihad, who specifies that the olive season was his favorite, before the construction of the wall.
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Palestinian territories
Agriculture and Fishing
Israelo-Palestinian conflict