SALFIT– Israeli settlers today attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in Khallet Hassan, north Bidya town, west of Salfit, according to a farmer.
Arafat Abu Seif, a farmer, said that a group of armed settlers attacked the farmers, including himself, beating them severely while the latter were harvesting their olive groves in the area.
He added that one of the assailants opened live fire on the farmers. No injuries were reported though.
Since the start of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, like so many other villages and areas in Palestine, Khallet Hassan and Bidya town have been subjected to almost continual land grab in order to create geographical link between the colonial settlements of Karnei Shamron, Ma’ale Shamron , Novem, and Jev’at Ya’er.
Since 1983, the Israeli occupation authorities and companies have seized control of over 1200 dunums utilizing fraudulent evidence to claim ownership, but the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission was able to get back 900 dunums as revealed by the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Land Research Center (LRC).
Settlers have recently stepped up their attacks against olive harvesters across the occupied West Bank, mainly in Nablus and Salfit districts, attacking farmers and preventing them from picking their olives.
Over 9,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the West Bank since August 2020, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which called on Israel to ensure safe, timely, and adequate access for Palestinians to their olive groves in the occupied West Bank.
With more than 12 million olive trees planted across 45% of the West Bank’s agricultural land, the olive harvest constitutes one of the biggest sources of economic sustainability for thousands of Palestinian families.
According to UN OCHA, the olive oil industry supports the livelihoods of more than 100,000 families and accounts for a quarter of the gross agricultural income of the occupied territories.
But, as local NGO MIFTAH notes, “olive trees carry more than an economic significance in the lives of Palestinians. They are not just like any other trees, they are symbolic of Palestinians’ attachment to their land.”
“Because the trees are drought-resistant and grow under poor soil conditions, they represent Palestinian resistance and resilience. The fact that olive trees live and bear fruit for thousands of years is parallel to Palestinian history and continuity on the land.”
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency