Israeli settlers take Palestinian olives, and their harvest traditions

Videos shared in Israeli settler networks show men harvesting olives from groves near the village of Qaryut in the northern occupied West Bank, footage Palestinians say depicts settlers taking olives from privately owned land. The men in the clips include Avichai Suissa, who runs a farm at a nearby outpost and has solicited donations to rebuild and expand the site. Local residents say olive groves have been inaccessible since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023 and that attempts by Palestinian farmers to tend their land were blocked by the Israeli army. Palestinian activists report an escalation of settler activity around the olive harvest this year, describing the season as the worst on record. Human-rights group Yesh Din recorded 109 harvest-related violent incidents across 75 Palestinian communities between September 27 and October 6, an average of about 11 incidents per day. One reported attack between the villages of Ramin and Burqa involved armed settlers in tractors opening fire on farmers; a 44-year-old farmer, Ali Bazzari, was killed while trying to pick olives, and witnesses said ambulances were prevented from reaching the wounded. Beyond confrontations, Palestinian farmers also describe wider dispossession through tree destruction and military orders. Residents in Beit Rima said Israeli bulldozers uprooted more than 400 olive trees belonging to Hazem Sanaf and his neighbour after a military order in late September. The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC) reported that approximately 50,000 trees have been destroyed this year. Palestinians link tree removal and restricted access to a broader pattern of land seizure and economic impoverishment. Settlers have also been sharing content that imitates the social rituals of the olive season — collective picking, pressing olives and communal meals — prompting Palestinians to say their cultural traditions are being appropriated. For generations, the olive harvest has been both an economic lifeline and a social practice — known locally as ouneh — where family knowledge about cultivation and harvesting is passed down. With fields blocked, trees uprooted and harvests taken, farmers fear loss of livelihood and the erosion of a cultural practice rooted in the land.