Nablus -

Loaded with olive harvesting kit and accompanied by his family members, Palestinian farmer Nimr Issa heads to his land in the "Al-Malasah" area near the settlement of "Yitzhar", which is built on lands south of Nablus in the West Bank, to harvest his harvest this year, defying the Israeli settlers who were ferociously attacking the historic Palestinian tree.

Official statistics and facts on the ground indicate a rise in settlers' attacks and their practice of "terrorism" against Palestinian farmers and olive trees, specifically during the current season, which began in early October and continues for more than a month throughout Palestine.

The village of Burin (near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank) witnessed the largest share of attacks by settlers of "Yitzhar", known for their extremism and violence against the Palestinians. Nimr Issa documented 7 attacks among more than 50 that affected his village since the start of the season.

Issa told Al Jazeera Net, "This is an alarming number, and also dangerous. The settlers practiced terrorism not by cutting or burning trees as usual, but rather intimidating citizens and preventing them from reaching their land to permanently sever their connection with it."

Palestinians picking their olives near the settlement of "Yitzhar", perched on Palestinian lands south of Nablus (Al-Jazeera)

with intent to kill

On the fifth of this October, Issa and his family were subjected to the most serious attacks, in full view of the occupation soldiers, despite entering his land with prior Palestinian-Israeli coordination.

Issa says that more than 50 settlers carrying "knives and axes" threw stones at them and threw burning tires at them;

His little girl was injured, and before that they cut and burned 160 of his old olive trees, sprayed trees and plants with chemicals, and flooded the land with sewage water to prevent it from being reclaimed again.

But the farmer Issa continued picking his olives, ignoring the settlers’ attacks, and without coordinating with the occupation, who said that he only gives him two days to work on his land estimated at 15 dunams (a dunam is equal to one thousand square meters), while he needs more than a month to finish the harvest.

This year, what Jesus picked from his olives produced a quarter of a ton of oil, and if he adhered to the period specified by the occupation (two days), he would not produce 10% of the quantity.

Yitzhar and the settlements of Bracha and Givat Ronen sit on the lands of Burin village, confiscating more than 15,000 dunums of it, and inhabited by extremist settlers who target 6 Palestinian villages south of Nablus, most notably Hawara and Urif.

Palestinian olive trees that were uprooted by settlers in the Nablus area in the northern West Bank (Al-Jazeera)

theft and cracking

Not far from Burin, the Palestinian Jabara Abu Salim was lamenting his fortune in the land of "Al-Lahf" in his village "Salem" (east of Nablus), after the settlers wreaked havoc and ruined it.

With great sadness, Abu Salim, 60, spoke to Al-Jazeera Net, and said that when he arrived on his land near the settlement called "Alon Moreh", he found his olives stolen and his trees broken "in a hostile manner" aimed at displacing the owners of the land and cutting their relationship with it forever.

After a whole year spent by Abu Salim tending his fields in the hope of reaping a good harvest of olives that would help him to survive and support his family of 10, including university students, he did not find the fruits to cover his expenses and fatigue for one day.

He estimates the loss of more than 200 kilos of olive oil, a tragedy that doubles annually as settlers continue their attacks.

Settlements and the Israeli apartheid wall isolate more than 600,000 olive trees distributed over 50,000 dunums of West Bank land, which weakens the production of the general Palestinian olive oil crop by more than 5%.

Al-Fazaa is a Palestinian initiative to support farmers in picking olives in areas threatened by settler attacks (Al-Jazeera)

dread

Through organized groups and under several names such as "hill youth" or "price tag gangs", armed settlers launch attacks against Palestinian farmers directly, not satisfied with the destruction of their land and agriculture.

The settlers carry out their aggression under the protection of the occupation army, and with official and financial support from the Israeli government, which refuses to hold them accountable or prosecute them.

This is what Palestinian officials and activists in resisting settlement see as "organized terrorism" and hostility practiced by settlers throughout the year, even if it appears intense during the olive season.

Munther Amira, an activist in the Popular Resistance Committees, says that against the backdrop of "settler terror and attacks," the popular resistance launched "Fazaa" activities for the second year in a row.

It is a Palestinian initiative to support farmers in their lands near settlements and hot spots.

Al-Faza'a (Al-Awnah) was distinguished this year - according to Amira - by dozens of Palestinian volunteers, in addition to foreign solidarity activists who were absent due to Corona.

The initiative also provided a "hotline" for quick response and "patrols" in the most dangerous and targeted areas for settlers to physically confront any sudden aggression against farmers, in addition to documenting the settlers' crimes for the purpose of prosecuting them internationally.

"We seek to form a fazaa in every village and city of its residents," Amira said.


Why an olive tree?

Settler attacks, according to Israeli sources, reached 363 in 2019, and 507 in 2020, and amounted to 416 until the first half of this year, and varied between vandalizing cars and property, burning homes, uprooting trees and physical attacks.

Walid Assaf, head of the Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission (an official Palestinian institution), confirms that settler crimes doubled this year from the previous year by 150%, and were concentrated in the central and northern West Bank.

Assaf told Al Jazeera Net that there are "civilian units" that are 6,500 organized settlers. The occupation government pays them to implement their expansion plans on Palestinian land, and provides them with infrastructure services to establish agricultural and industrial settlement projects.

Amira and Assaf agree that the settlers’ targeting of olive trees is not in vain, but rather because of their hatred for this tree to which the Palestinians are linked religiously, culturally and economically. And the land that they want to eradicate them.

There is a religious dimension that the researcher in Israeli affairs, Omar Ja’ara, talks about, which is that olive is an almost non-existent word “in the books of the Old Testament.” It was mentioned once in reference to the location of the “Mount of Olives” in Jerusalem, while olives were mentioned in the Holy Qur’an at the beginning of Surat Al-Tin, and “It has an indication of the land of Palestine as an olive plantation.”

He explains, saying that the holy and blessed places mentioned in the Qur’an are 3 places: the ancient house in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, the Holy Valley (Tur Sanin), and the third is Al-Aqsa Mosque, and therefore “the olive trees are indicative of Palestine, the blessed land.”

In contrast, Chief Zionist Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is credited with urging him to steal the Palestinian olive crop, as part of the Jewish faith.

And it came in an old fatwa of him, "If it were not for us (the Jews), the rain would not descend, and the crops would not grow, and it is not conceivable that the rain would come to us, and the wicked (meaning the Palestinians) would take the olives and make olive oil from it."

This fatwa legalized the settlers to launch violent attacks on the Palestinian olive tree throughout the West Bank in particular, to deprive its owners of its oil.