West Bank Olive farmers face settler violence

Around As-Sawiya, rolling hills covered in fields and orchards rise to a horizon sharp against a pristine blue sky.

- Jason Burke and Sufian Taha

But look closer and it becomes clear why the few thousand residents of this small town in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank say they are under siege - and why the olives are still on the trees long after the annual harvest began in mid-October.

Mahmud Hassan, the mayor, points out the olive orchards that lie on land owned by local families but are impossible to reach without risking a potentially fatal clash with Israeli settlers who live in settlements around the town, or with Israeli security forces, he says. In all, about 70% of the town’s olives have been inaccessible.