Newsday · 25 November 2002

CP-2002-093

Bitter Harvest in West Bank

Violence curbs olive farming

By Joshua Mitnick / SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

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Transcribed from the clipping

Yanoun, West Bank — The annual olive harvest season used to be a bucolic time for Palestinian farmers such as Khader and Adnan Abu Haniyeh. After knocking piles of the purplish-brown fruit from their branches, the brothers would brew a pot of tea and smoke cigarettes amid their grove of dusty green trees, orange earth and dried thistle.

This fall, that rhythm has been broken. The brothers' groves shade rocky slopes within sight of the Jewish settlement of Itamar. For two weeks last month, the men stayed out of the groves, fearing a confrontation with gunmen from the settlement. In recent days, to avoid losing their crop, the brothers have gone to harvest.

But now it's Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, and as they abstain from food and drink during daylight hours, the men have been able to work only slowly. “When you breathe you feel thirsty,” said Adnan Abu Haniyeh, 30. “By the afternoon all of us feel weak and hungry.”

The olive harvest has brought tension for decades, ever since settlers arrived in the West Bank. But this year's olive grove violence has been the worst, leaving a Palestinian farmer dead and scores injured after clashes with settler vigilante squads. The violence has flared partly because a bountiful harvest drew more pickers into the groves.

Palestinian families, their businesses and jobs lost to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have been desperate to harvest their olives. The settlers have been quicker to attack than they used to be because of recent incidents in which Palestinian militants have crept into Itamar and other settlements to kill residents in their homes.

Settlers have formed vigilante squads to prevent Palestinians from approaching anywhere within sight of the settlements.

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