Bitter crop Palestinians say olive harvest being blocked by Israeli settlers

The olive trees cover the dry, rocky slopes around Deir Istiya. Spread deep into the valley to its west, line the main roads, fill the gardens and shade its graveyards.

- Jason Burke

But many farmers in the historic Palestinian town, deep in the occupied West Bank, say that this year they have been unable to harvest much of the vital olive crop, blaming an intensifying campaign of intimidation and violence by residents of the half-dozen Israeli settlements and outposts nearby.

Ibrahim Abu Hijleh, 30, a farmer whose small olive grove is 200 metres from Revava, a settlement built in the 1990s, said he was only able to reach his olive grove for a few hours in November when accompanied by Israeli activists and a Palestinian member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

"I got about 10% of the harvest and now we need to trim and tend the trees," he said. "I keep trying to go back, but people come from the settlement and tell us to leave and threaten us." Last month the UN said attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank that resulted in casualties or property damage had at least tripled during this year's olive harvest season compared with each of the preceding three years.

Between 1 October and 25 November, the UN documented 250 settler-related incidents across 88 West Bank communities resulting in 57 Palestinians being injured by settlers and 11 by Israeli forces.

More than 2,800 trees - mostly slow-growing olive trees - were burned, sawed-off or vandalised, and there was significant theft of crops and harvesting tools, it said.