West Bank olive harvest opens under the shadow of settler attacks before Israel votes

Palestinian farmers began the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank on Thursday braced for violence, after a season of settler raids that they fear will get worse in the run-up to Israel’s general election on 27 October.

The Palestinian Authority’s agriculture ministry has recorded 300 settler-related incidents involving olive groves this autumn, before picking had officially started. The Israeli rights group Yesh Din has counted 100 thefts and found that a quarter of incidents took place with the Israeli military present. Olives account for an estimated 15% of the West Bank’s agricultural output.

A death under the trees

On 7 October, about 15 to 20 settlers raided the Bazzari family’s field near the village of Burqa, said Abdellatif Bazzari, who was injured. His cousin Ali was shot dead by Israeli troops during the raid, he said, and the army kept an ambulance from reaching him. “My cousin bled to death right under this olive tree,” he said.

The Israeli military said troops and border police were sent after reports of stones thrown at an Israeli civilian, who was hurt, and that a commander “neutralised” a “terrorist” running towards him.

“They don’t want us to plant, to farm anything,” Bazzari said. Of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, locked in a tight race, he said: “If he loses, things will get better.”

Mahmoud Fatafta of the Palestinian agriculture ministry said the election calendar was giving settlers added impunity. “Israeli parties want to show that they are tough on Palestinians,” he said. Yesh Din described the violence as “not random, but part of an Israeli policy with a clear objective.”

Israeli leaders have pointed to attacks on Israelis, including the shooting of a settler by a Palestinian last month. The UN says settler attacks averaged six a day in the first half of the year.