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- 10 oct 2011
Jewish settlers torch 20 Palestinian dunums of olive trees
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Palestinian fire fighters managed on Monday morning to put off a huge fire that was blazing in 20 dunums of Palestinian olive farmland in Orta village, south of Nablus, a statement for the fire brigades said.
It noted that Jewish settlers had started the fire late on Sunday night, adding that many olive trees were damaged in addition to a reporter’s car, which was intentionally targeted by those settlers.
Ghassan Daghlas, in-charge of monitoring Jewish settlement activity in northern West Bank areas, said that the farmers in Orta and Yanun villages decided to delay the reaping of their olive crops this year due to the escalating settlers’ attacks.
Tens of those fanatic settlers attacked farmers in Azmut village to the east of Nablus city on Monday morning while reaping their olive harvest.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers came from the nearby settlement of Elon Moreh, adding that the farmers refused to leave their land and engaged the settlers in fistfights to ascertain their right to reaping their harvest.
In a similar incident south of Al-Khalil, Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and stole what they had collected of olives.
Local sources said that the settlers used batons and sharp tools to attack the farmers and fired in the air to terrorize them, adding that Israeli occupation troops arrived to the scene and chased Palestinian youths at the pretext of throwing stones at the settlers and arrested two minors.
http://fwd4.me/0JiO
14 jan 2012, 20:12 , Respect -
Maria 11 oct 2011
Israeli siege harms Gaza olive cultivation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn7dPOZDJfI
Olive cultivation and its related businesses in the Gaza Strip have been severely damaged due to Israel's invasions and its long-time blockade of the impoverished coastal sliver, Press TV reports.
Olive farmers say while harvest seasons used to take about two months in the past, the season lasts less than a week in recent years, as Israel's use of white phosphorous shells on the Gaza Strip has caused permanent damage to the trees.
Olives of the Gaza Strip are considered to be among the most high-quality worldwide.
The harvest used to provide seasonal employment for an estimated 25,000 workers in the Gaza Strip, but now only a few hundred people work in olive harvesting.
Besides the effects of the white phosphorus, olive groves are frequently razed by Israeli forces who cross into Gaza every month.
According to the Palestinian Authority's ministry of agriculture, Israeli forces destroyed 114,000 olive trees in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000.
Olive oil pressers have also been affected by the poor cropping. They say, while Gaza was once a major exporter of olive oil, the region can no longer meet even its own domestic demands for the product.
Israel laid an economic siege on the impoverished costal sliver in June 2007, after Hamas took control of the enclave. The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and the right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/203916.html
14 jan 2012, 20:13 , Respect -
Maria 11 oct 2011
Farmers harvest olives as wall cuts through village
AL-WALAJA (Reuters) -- It is olive picking season in the Palestinian territories, an important harvest as the fruit represents an integral part of the agricultural livelihood of many.
But, the farmers in the West Bank village of Al-Walaja say the construction of an Israeli barrier is threatening this activity.
This small community of 2,300 people located on the edge of Jerusalem's southwest is almost entirely surrounded by Jewish settlements.
The bulldozers have uprooted thousands of olives trees as it clears land for the barrier and has confiscated around 90 percent of the village's land.
The Palestinian villagers say that when building is complete, this barrier will cut them off from their farmlands, cemetery and water source.
In a symbolic event to mark their resistance to the Israeli occupation, men and women from the village gathered to harvest a 3,500 year old olive tree.
"We combined two occasions, a day for Palestinian heritage and the olive harvesting season," explained Maha Saca who organized the event.
"This is all related: olives are a part of our heritage, identity and our existence on this land. We are here to stay like the olive trees. This olive tree represents 3,500 years and gives us 60 bags of olives annually. It is proof that the Palestinian people have existed and lived here for thousands of years," she said.
Israel began constructing the barrier in 2002 at the height of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli cities.
It says the barrier is crucial to keeping out attackers, although the route of the wall is twice the length of the Green Line and mostly runs inside the West Bank.
Analysts say the wall -- whose course encompasses Israeli settlements in the West Bank -- is a thinly-disguised move to annex or fragment land in the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice has declared the planned wall - more than half of which is completed - illegal, but Israel has ignored the non-binding ruling.
Earlier in September, EU representatives said they were "deeply concerned" by the impact of the Israeli separation wall on the village, saying it "will cut off much of the village's land," preventing residents from accessing their property and agricultural land.
Upon completion the wall will completely "encircle" the village, EU representatives said, leaving only a single access road connecting the village to the West Bank.
The separation wall is illegal in all areas built on occupied land, they noted.
As well as mounting legal challenges to the route, Al-Walaja residents hold regular demonstrations against the impact of the wall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=428195
14 jan 2012, 20:13 , Respect -
Maria Burin Village Oct 12, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMuHoi8UHQY
14 jan 2012, 20:14 , Respect -
Maria 13 oct 2011
EUPOL COPPS Helps Palestinians in Harvesting Olives
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) - EUPOL COPPS, several European Consul Generals and Representatives as well as other senior European officials helped Palestinian farmers to harvest their olives in the northern West Bank, according to an EUPOL COPPS press release issued Thursday.
EUPOL COPPS’ police advisers also joint Palestinian farmers picking olives in Faroun village where the Israeli separation barrier cuts into the village’s land.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who participated in the outdoor activity with other government officials, has launched the start of the olives season in Faroun.
Fayyad had invited government employees, foreign diplomats and international bodies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to participate in the usually festive activity.
The participation of EUPOL COPPS and that of the Palestinian Civil Police strengthen the concept of community policing and ensuring the safety and security of Palestinian farmers.
To be noted, Olives are a main source of income for many Palestinians living the countryside of the West Bank.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17758
14 jan 2012, 20:14 , Respect -
Maria 14 oct 2011
Olive Harvest, West-Bank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djgFWcc9rq8
Olive oil is a major source of income for in the West-Bank. But for Palestinians, profiting from the olive trees has become very difficult as a result of Israeli security policies and harrasments by Jewish settlers.
- Israel Social TV -
14 jan 2012, 20:15 , Respect -
Maria 14 oct 2011
Israeli forces 'block olive harvest in Nablus'
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces blocked villagers in Nablus from harvesting olives on lands near Israeli settlements on Friday, locals told Ma'an.
Israeli troops told harvesters in Qaryut and Azmut villages that security coordination had expired and blocked them from picking olives, a Ma'an correspondent said.
International activists accompanying farmers said forces told them in nearby village Burin that the area was a closed military zone and shut down the harvest.
"There are dozens of olives on the top of the hill (near the Israel settlement of Yitzhar)," one activist said, "but villagers were only given four days permission to do two weeks' work."
Ghassan Doughlas, the Palestinian Authority official monitoring settler activity in the northern West Bank, said Israeli settlers came into olive groves in Azmut, north of Nablus, and Jit to the east.
Settlers clashed with locals as they tried to harvest olives, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=429172
14 jan 2012, 20:16 , Respect -
Maria 15 oct 2011
Harvesting the Olives in Bil'in 15-10-2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMMASarzvI8
Throughout the centuries, Palestinians farmers have made their living from olive cultivation and olive oil production; 80 percent of cultivated land in the West Bank and Gaza is planted with olive trees.
In the West Bank alone, some 100,000 families are dependent on olive sales. Today, the olive harvest provides Palestinian farmers with anywhere between 25 to 50 percent of their annual income, and as the economic crisis deepens, the harvest provides for many their basic means of survival.
But despite the hardships, it is the festivities and traditions that accompany the weeks of harvesting that have held Palestinian communities together and are, in fact, a demonstration of their ownership of the land that no occupation can extinguish except by the annihilation of Palestinian society itself ... such heartbreaking reality has led the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, to say, "If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would have become tears ..."
14 jan 2012, 20:16 , Respect -
Maria 15 oct 2011
Update: Settlers 'burn olive trees' near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israelis from a settlement outpost in the central West Bank set fire to dozens of dunams of olives tree forest belonging to farmers in Ras Karkar village on Friday evening, locals told Ma'an.
Residents of Nira outpost burned down over 120 olive trees in the Ramallah-district village, on land owned by Adnan Fkhida, Naman Nofal and Hafeth Shaban, a Ma'an correspondent said.
Israeli forces blocked farmers and firemen from approaching to control the fire, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=429309
14 jan 2012, 20:17 , Respect -
Maria 17 oct 2011
In photos: Olive harvest in West Bank village
The Badar family harvest olives in the village of Beitillu, northwest of Ramallah.
Beitillu was historically a farming village but between the first and second Intifada most residents worked in construction within Israel.
The village has now turned back to farming as the primary source of income and grows olives, pumpkins, tomatoes, courgettes and guava.
Settlers from nearby Hallamish have attacked the family's land in the past.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=430080 14 jan 2012, 20:22 , Respect -
Maria 18 oct 2011
Olive Harvest in Burin with Rabbis for Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvbIHuDaV9Y
Olive harvesting with Palestinian farmers in Burin, a village not far from Nablus with Rabbis for Human rights.
14 jan 2012, 20:22 , Respect -
Maria 20 oct 2011
Oxfam: Settlers cost farmers over $500,000 this harvest
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers have cost Palestinian farmers over $500,000 this year by destroying olive trees in the West Bank, Oxfam and local organizations warned Thursday.
Oxfam, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees estimated that olives collected this year would produce half the oil of the 2010 harvest, a statement from Oxfam said.
"Burning an olive tree is like burning a farmer’s bank account," said Oxfam director Jeremy Hobbs.
"Over 100,000 Palestinian families depend on the money they earn during harvest season. Especially because this is a bad harvest, every olive counts."
Oxfam says over 2,500 olive trees were destroyed in September, and 7,500 this year. Since 1967, 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted resulting in a loss of around $55 million to the Palestinian economy, the international organization estimates.
In 97 incidents of tree destruction documented between 2005 and 2010, no court cases have yet been brought against culprits, according to research by Israeli NGO Yesh Din, the release said.
Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees advocacy director Munjed Abu Jaish urged Israeli authorities to "stop protecting and supporting the settlers over Palestinians.
"Israeli settlers must understand that they are not above the law."
Aside from settler attacks, tens of thousands of olive trees have been uprooted to make way for Israel's wall, and nearly one million more are caught between the illegal wall and the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank. Thousands more trees are off limits to farmers because they are close to illegal settlements in the West Bank, Oxfam notes.
Union of Agricultural Work Committees official Omar Tabakhna says farmers don't want to be dependent on aid handouts.
"They want to work on their land and earn money from a product they are proud of. In order for them to do this, we must ensure that their rights are upheld."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=430878
14 jan 2012, 20:23 , Respect -
Maria 22 oct 2011
Olive harvest brings settler violence in West Bank
On the outskirts of the northern West Bank village of Qasra, a 19-year-old resident recently told me that settlers are not going to stop attacking Palestinians, simply because they don’t have too. According to the man, settlers live in a world of no consequence as if removed from the normal social contract of Western societies. One look at this year’s olive harvest, taking place throughout the West Bank over the next two weeks, proves the statement to be correct.
This morning (Friday), a group of armed settlers from the illegal outpost of Ash Kodesh (Sacred/Holy Light) approached a group of Palestinians picking olives, accompanied by Israeli and international activists. The Palestinians were from the nearby village of Jalud and had been picking olives in peace until settlers descended from their outpost. The settlers claim that the Palestinians “provoked” them by throwing stones, a claim denied by the Palestinians and activists. Settlers also noted that the Palestinians did not get permission from the proverbial master of the land – the Israeli army – to have an olive harvest. You can read their fantastic understanding of how the events unfolded on Ynet.
Palestinians claim that the settler attack was driven by pure malice. As you can see in the embedded video, many settlers had covered their faces with masks, with some carrying metal poles in addition to several firearms. Had the settlers only been defending themselves, one wonders why they would cover their faces—a practice popular among setters engaged in wanton violent attacks on Palestinian civilians and their supporters.
The Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement, a leftist activist outfit based in Jerusalem, posted the embedded video on Twitter, claiming that it shows a sound grenade thrown by settlers at Palestinians this morning. While this has not been independently confirmed, it comes weeks after the Israeli government announced that it would arm settlers with “less lethal”riot control gear, such as tear gas and sound grenades, ahead of feared violence surrounding the PLO statehood bid in the United Nations. West Bank settlers remain the only group in Israel/Palestine with the ability to use violence in a brash and dangerous way while suffering virtually zero consequences.
http://fwd4.me/0fRO
14 jan 2012, 20:24 , Respect -
Maria 23 oct 2011
Israeli tanks patrol olive farmers in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgsAq1yhW_4
Olive farmers and volunteers were picking olives on 23 October 2011 when they were circled by 2 apache helicopters and were faced by 4 tanks at certain points in the day. This video shows one of the tanks.
More proof that Gazans are unable to pick fruit or simply make a living without being treated like criminals
14 jan 2012, 20:25 , Respect -
Maria 25 oct 2011
Whistle while you work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iD3Epzg7SA
Picking olives by the buffer zone. We saw tanks, jeeps, heard some F16s and a gunshot. Happy days.