Settlers Escalate Efforts to Turn ‘The Olive Harvest Season’ Into Security Issue

Settlers Escalate Efforts to Turn ‘The Olive Harvest Season’ Into Security Issue

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The ‘National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that Palestinians eagerly await mid-October each year to celebrate the Olive Harvest Season with their families and relatives, having forged an emotional bond with this blessed tree. Throughout this season, Palestinians can be seen in the fields extending across the mountains, plains, and valleys, with them, the fields are adorned with a new guise that reflects a joyful popular character brimming with life and belonging. They are proud of their olives, and their oil, which is the finest in the world as they say. One manifestation of this Palestinian pride in their olives is their story of the oldest olive tree in the history of agricultural civilization.
It is located in the Al-Walaja village, near the Apartheid Wall. Its age as estimated by experts from the (UNESCO) is about 5,500 year. It stands about 12 meters tall, with a diameter of 25 meters, and has 22 branches, each like a tree, covering an area of 250m2. In good seasons, it annually produces about 500 kilo of fruit.
Over the years, the olive tree has been a symbol of the Palestinian citizen s existence and steadfastness. In order to protect the land from the monster of settlements and the occupation policy in general, Palestinians began to expand olive tree cultivation, especially in the years following the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The area of land planted with olives in 2010 was about 462,824 dunums, of which 21,509 dunums were in the Gaza Strip. In 2021, it increased to 575,194 dunums, of which 33,633 dunums were in the Gaza Strip.
Thus, the olive tree entered the lexicon of popular resistance to defend the land and resist settlements. One of the Palestinians responses to the settlement expansion of the Israeli occupation state in the Palestinian countryside, especially in the areas classified according to the agreements signed between the Palestinian and Israeli sides as Area C, was to expand olive tree cultivation, which has become a symbol of defiance and steadfastness on the one hand, and a target of the occupation policy and the monster of settlements on the other.
In previous years, the occupation authorities granted citizens, through coordination, military permits allowing them to access their lands in certain areas, such as those located behind the wall - 69 gates -´-or-lands adjacent to settlements (more than 110 towns, villages and communities whose lands are located adjacent to 56 settlements and dozens of settlement outposts). In the 2023 olive harvest season, the occupation authorities revoked almost all of these permits, effectively preventing farmers from accessing their lands. The agricultural gates along the apartheid wall remained closed, while the lands adjacent to the settlements were mostly closed by the occupation forces with earth mounds.
This year, the Sason officially begins on October 9th. However, the 2025 season is considered one of the weakest in the past 15 years. Olive oil production rates vary from year to year, ranging between 22,000 - 40,000 tons. In 2019, Palestine recorded a record olive oil production rate of approximately 40,000 tons, and in 2022, production reached 36,000 tons. Production rates subsequently declined, specifically after October 7th, 2023. The main reasons for this, especially this year, are the low rainfall, which did not reach 50% of the usual average, in addition to the in temperatures during the Al-Morba’aneiah i.e. 40 cold days in winter period to less than 7 degrees, and the abnormal heat waves that witnessed the summer.
In addition to these natural factors, farmers face difficulties in accessing their lands due to the barriers, earth mounds, and iron gates installed by the occupation authorities across the West Bank. In 2023, farmers were unable to access 120,000 dunams, and in 2024, the situation was even more difficult. Under pressure from settlers, the occupation authorities began controlling permits for farmers to access their fields near approximately 180 settlements, approximately 256 outposts, and pastoral farms surrounded by security belts that prevent access except with special permits.
At the same time, settler attacks on olive trees have been repeated, including uprooting, burning, destroying, and stealing crops, in an attempt to deprive farmers of their livelihood and reduce their presence on their lands. Since October 7, 2023, the occupation army and settlers have set approximately 800 fires on property and fields, including 600 fires on fields and agricultural lands. These fires have destroyed a total of 50,000 trees, including 37,000 olive trees, particularly in the governorates of Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Ramallah.
All at once, with the escalation of settler violence in the West Bank, the Israeli police s central unit, under the command of Ben-Gvir s close associate, Avshai Moalem, stopped coordinating with the Shin Bet to-limit-, even to a minimal extent, settler attacks. With the Israeli police s central unit in the occupied West Bank halting coordination with the Shin Bet s Division responsible for Jewish terrorism, settler attacks and assaults targeting Palestinians have escalated.
Despite the stubborn facts on the ground, Moalem denies the growing scope of Jewish terrorism in the West Bank and refrains from coordinating with the relevant agencies. The division previously provided the Yishai unit with intelligence on Jewish terrorist activities in the West Bank. This all came to a halt on the orders of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has repeatedly demanded that Netanyahu deny Palestinians access to their lands in the West Bank during the olive harvest season. Last year, the German ambassador to Israel, Stefan Seibert, even demanded that Netanyahu reject Ben-Gvir s request and protect Palestinian farmers on their lands from settler attacks. Netanyahu did not respond to the ambassador s request, of course.
At the beginning of this year, with settler practices, indicates an escalation in the intensity of this terrorism. The start of the olive harvest this season in Jabal Qammas in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, was not an easy´-or-normal task like previous years, but rather was fraught with danger. In the early morning hours of the first Friday, residents headed to pick olives in the area, only to be surprised by a settler attack protected by the occupation army, which prevented them from completing the harvest and withdrawing to other areas, under the pretext of needing coordination to enter.
Hours later, a new chapter of attacks began, assaulting citizens and burning several vehicles. The scope of the settler attacks expanded to include the towns of Beita, Huwara, and Deir Sharaf in the Nablus Governorate, resulting in approximately 36 citizens being injured, including two from live bullets, in addition to the burning and destruction of approximately 15 vehicles, including an ambulance and another belonging to Agence France-Presse photographer Jaafar Shtayyeh. In the town of Kafr Qaddum in the Qalqilya Governorate, the flames of settler terrorism also rose with the beginning of the season.
The occupation authorities have closed off lands in the northern part of the town, including my land, with an iron gate. The area of these lands is approximately four to five thousand dunams. This has become a form of collective punishment for Kafr Qaddum. In the village of Kafr Haris in the Salfit Governorate, near the Ariel settlement, residents have been prevented from accessing more than 3,000 dunams of olive-planted land.
However, the most -dir-e situation among all the evidence of settler violence and the occupation army and police is expressed in the valiant village of Al-Mughayyir in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate. Faraj Al-Na san, a farmer, said that this year s olive season is almost non-existent, as residents will only be able to access about 3% of the lands planted with olives, which are located within the village s borders. Last August, the occupation forces carried out a massive campaign to cut down olive trees, uprooting 10,000 trees.
Large areas were also seized for settlement outposts, and 250 olive trees were cut down on the only road connecting al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, further isolating the village and deepening the siege imposed on its residents.
Across various governorates, settlers destroyed olive groves, for example, in the Marj Sa i area, located between the villages of Abu Falah and Turmus Ayya. They also prevented several farmers from completing the olive harvest on their lands located between the villages of Rantis in the Ramallah Governorate and Deir Ballut in the Salfeet Governorate. In the village of Um Safa, settlers damaged water tanks and stole property from the farm of Bashir Abu Muhammad. A group of settlers also stormed the town of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah, and attacked the home of Abdul Munim Dar Khalil, vandalizing its contents and stealing solar panels.
Thus, the olive harvest season in Palestine, one of the most prominent annual agricultural seasons, has become the target of escalating campaigns of incitement and restrictions by the occupation authorities and even their media and political arms, alongside settler groups. The Israeli inflammatory and misleading rhetoric has extended to include Palestinians right to access their olive groves, under the pretext that Hamas is pushing these citizens into confrontations with the army and settlers.
The season has thus transformed from a mere harvest season into a security situation that requires addressing. This misleading and inflammatory narrative has been employed in Israeli political and media discourse to reveal how the olive harvest has been transformed from a security issue into an Israeli propaganda tool to justify violations and undermine one of Palestine s most important economic and national seasons.
For example, on Sep. 30, the Jewish Voice website, a right-wing Israeli settler website known for its inflammatory rhetoric against Palestinians, broadcast an episode of its podcast "We Speak on the Mountain," hosted by journalist Elhanan Groner and Israeli activist Menachem Ben Shehar. The episode, titled ‘The Olive Harvest Carnival is Approaching: How Hamas is Taking Control of Area C under the Nose of the Israeli Army’, contained a series of inflammatory claims about the Palestinian olive harvest season. The speakers argued that the season is not an innocent agricultural activity, but rather "a cover for a strategic project run by Hamas to take control of Area C in the West Bank."
The far-right Israeli Em Tirtzu Movement also published a petition on its official website and digital platforms calling on the Israeli military leadership to reconsider its policy of allowing Palestinians to harvest olives in areas close to settlements and major transit routes. The movement stated in its petition that continuing to allow Palestinians into these areas poses a ‘security risk’ to the Jewish population. On Oct. 5, the Israeli movement published a statement saying it had hung signs demanding a halt to the harvest season.
It stated that the Central Command would allow the olive harvest to begin in less than two weeks, and that the "enemy," it claimed, would exploit this, "similar to what happened in Gaza before October 7, to gather intelligence and hide launchers and other weapons, in preparation for the next massacre. " The petition concluded with an urgent call, "This time, let us wake up in time. Stop the harvest and prevent the next massacre," urging followers to sign the petition.
According to a report published by the Israeli Ma’ariv Newspaper on Sep 28, Israeli political and security officials have escalated their rhetoric regarding the Palestinian olive harvest season, accusing Palestinians of using it as a cover for ‘incitement and carrying out acts of violence’. This came during a special session held by the Knesset s National Security Committee, initiated by MK Limor Son Har-Melach of the Otzma Yehudit party, to discuss what Israeli media described as ‘an increase in violence during the olive season’.
On Sep 28, notorious terrorist Elisha Yared, the killer of Qusai Maatan from the town of Burqa, Ramallah, published a series of posts inciting against Palestinians, claiming that the harvest season constitutes an ‘annual terror’ for settlers. He also praised MK Limor Son Har-Melach s initiative to discuss police preparations for the olive harvest, saying that there were those ‘finally trying to put an end to the chaos’ He also attacked left-wing Israeli organizations, accusing them of ‘attempting to change the reality in favor of the Palestinians.’
In another post, settler and activist Elisha Yerid attached cartoons linking olive to weapons, which he claimed were circulating on ‘Arab social media,’ and wrote, ‘For those still wondering how the enemy views the harvest season, these cartoons sum up the truth. The army continues to preserve the fabric of the enemy s life at the expense of our children s safety.’
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Attacking the Khallet al-Sidra Bedouin Community east of the Mikhmas town, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and attempted to assault residents and their homes before withdrawing from the area.
- Blowing up the home of martyr Moh’d Taha in the Qatana town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.
Hebron:
- Detaining farmers in the Tarqumiya town, west of Beit Lahia, preventing them from reaching their lands near the bypass road and the settlements of Adora and Telem. They seized their vehicles and threatened them not to return to their lands in preparation for seizing them for settlement expansion in the area.
- Attacking farmers in the Al-Qurainat area, fired live bullets at them, assaulted them, and prevented them from working their lands, which are threatened with confiscation for the nearby settlement outpost that was recently established. Meanwhile, five citizens were injured with fractures and bruises after being attacked by settlers in the town of Beit Fajjar. A group of settlers attacked a number of farmers from the Taqatqa family while they were on their land in the Wadi Saif area, assaulting them with sticks and stones and unleashing dogs, resulting in five of them sustaining fractures and bruises. They were transferred to a medical clinic in the town.
- Assaulting Beit Fajjar Municipality ambulance officers and prevented them from providing first aid to the injured, and burned a vehicle belonging to citizen Moh’d Taqatqa.
Bethlehem:

- Assaulting elderly citizen Odeh Ali Odeh Ghazal, 75 while he was returning from his land in the Um Zutina area near the village of Kisan, which resulted in him suffering various bruises and contusions, while others began building a synagogue on lands in the town of Tekoa in a pastoral settlement outpost that was established after Oct 7, 2023 in the Riyah Riah area in the Tekoa Wilderness.
Ramallah:
- Stealing 3 beehives from Um Safa lands after raiding the Jabal al-Ras area, which the occupation forces seized months ago. They destroyed 4 other hives owned by Bashir Abu Mohammad.
- Cutting down dozens of olive trees in the village of al-Mughayyir in the Sahl Marj Sa i area, west of the village, adjacent to the lands of the neighboring village of Abu Falah. The number of trees cut down was estimated at 150 olive trees with the start of the olive season, while settlers grazed their sheep on citizens lands in the town.
- Attacking the house of the Moh’d Bader family in the village of Um Safa, which is close to the Jabal al-Ras area, smashed its contents, assaulted its occupants, and attempted to kidnap the two brothers, Laith and Marhaf, before the occupation forces arrived, severely beaten and arrested them, and destroyed the contents of the house. They also attacked the homes of citizens in the village, where they attacked the home of citizen Nadim Khasib with stones, which led to damage to solar panels, windows and a water tank, before the residents confronted them, and then they returned hours later to attack a number of other homes.
- Cutting down olive trees in the Al-Marj area, Barqa, belonging to citizens of the village, others attacked the village of Yabrud, burning a vehicle and destroying others, and tried to burn down the home of citizen Ahmed Zawahra after smashing some of its windows.
Nablus:
- Assaulting farmers as they were returning home, seized their olive picking equipment, and threw the olives on the ground among the thorns in the Al-Shaab area, south of the village of Asira al-Qibliya. Others attacked olive pickers in the village of Jurish, the town of Aqraba, and Qabalan, south of Nablus, preventing them from continuing their work on their lands. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that medical crews at Rafidia Governmental Hospital and the Beita Emergency Center dealt with 36 injuries resulting from settler attacks on citizens in the towns of Beita, Huwara, and Deir Sharaf in the Nablus Governorate.
- Storming the outskirts of the villages of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya and Ammouriya, south of Nablus, on foot, followed by four settler vehicles. They stormed the site of Mount Tarouja, located between the two villages, under the protection of the occupation forces, before withdrawing via -dir-t roads towards the settlement of Ariel, west of Salfeet.
- Attacking farmers while they were picking olives in the Aqraba town in the Al-Arma area north of the town, and prevented them from picking the olives.
- Attacking the Duma Village Council crew while they were carrying out work to open the Wadi Nasser road.
Salfeet:
- Attacking farmers in the town of Deir Istiya during the olive harvest season. Groups of settlers attacked farmers in the Khallet Rasmala, which is located adjacent to the ‘Rafafa’ settlement and a number of settlement outposts, and threw rotten eggs at them while they were harvesting olives, while a drone hovered over their heads.
- Preventing the residents of Deir Istiya from reaching their lands located on the western side of the town, and closed the roads of Al-Sanadah and Al-Musrara. Attacked the farmer Jamal Zidan and his family, and the farmer Abdul Karim Mansour and his family. Another group assaulted Hajj Khader Mansour and his family members in the Al-Maslaba area opposite the ‘Yakir’ settlement. Settlers also in the Al-Qa dah area north of the town, where a pastoral outpost known as Havat Ibn Haimer was established stole olives and attacked farmers. Large forces of the occupation army arrived at the site and detained the farmers.
- Beating the farmer Sadiq Yousef Abu Naba a and his mother, Hajja Hamda Abu Naba a between the towns of al-Zawiya and Rafat, in addition to more than 20 farmers from the Abu Naba a family, both men and women. They also vandalized a number of private vehicles and fired live ammunition at them, forcing them to leave their lands.
Jordan Valley:
- Storming Khallet Makhul and Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley and began provoking and threatening residents. Others destroyed solar energy equipment in Khirbet al-Farisiya and vandalized and cut solar cell cables belonging to Ahmed Hussein Abu Mohsen.
- cutting down more than 150 olive trees owned by Sultan Rashid Mabslat in the Qa un Plain in the Bardala village.

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