Columbia Daily Tribune · 26 March 2017
CP-2017-025
Small farmers struggle worldwide, but Palestinians really have it rough
By Anne-Marie O'Connor / Special to The Washington Post
Transcribed from the clipping
JALUD, West Bank – Palestinian farmer Fawzi Ibrahim is proud of his heirloom corn, whose kernels ripen in iridescent shades of red, blue and gold like jewels. But what makes it priceless are the obstacles he faces to grow his crops. Small farmers struggle worldwide.
But international experts say Palestinian farmers face disabling odds in the 60 percent of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control and is home to some 400,000 Jewish settlers.
As settler agricultural start-ups get prioritized access to water, export markets and development rights, the Israeli occupation is roiling the centuries-old pastoral life of Palestinian farmers, experts say, adding fuel to a conflict in which land is a trigger.
For years, Israeli settlers have chased Ibrahim's tractor, threatened him, yelled at his Israeli soldier escorts, tried to burn his fields and warned that setting foot there would risk bloodshed, according to the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights. Ibrahim must coordinate with the Israeli army because his land is in a security zone abutting Israeli outposts, the group said.
But he and his lawyer waited eight weeks for permission to plant 50 acres of winter wheat in just two days, under the guard of two jeeploads of Israeli soldiers. A human rights worker and Israeli settlers looked on. Ibrahim said he fears he will suffer thousands of dollars in farming losses again this year. “They're making us poor,” he said.
A recent U.N. report said the Israeli occupation has set off a “continuous process of de-agriculturization” in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, depriving the Palestinian economy of potential agriculture revenue of $700 million, by World Bank estimates, as Israeli settlers ban Palestinians from crops, grazing lands and springs.
Cite this clipping
"Small farmers struggle worldwide, but Palestinians really have it rough," Columbia Daily Tribune, 26 March 2017, p. C4. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2017-025. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2017-025
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
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