You have probably come across posts about the olive harvest season in Palestine. But do you know what it is?
A festive season in Palestine, olive harvest falls every year in the months of October and November.
In 2021, Al Jazeera reported that about 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families financially depend upon the olive harvest which includes more than 15 percent women.
Palestine Trade Center (PalTrade) reported that the olive sector was worth $160m and $191m.
But over the years, strict Israeli control, settler attacks and a poor capitulation due to harsh climate has affected the festivity.
‘The olive season in Palestine is much more than an economic practice, it’s a palpable example of one of Palestine’s many “cultural ecosystem services.”’, writes Dr. Yara Dahdal, projects manager at Nature Palestine Society in a blog post.
Cultural ecosystem services, as Dr. Dahdal explains, are the “intangible benefits that people gain from ecosystems through recreation, tourism, intellectual development, spiritual enrichment, reflection, and creative and aesthetic experiences”.
These have “positive impacts on human health and social ties, and solid cultural connections to identity. In this sense, the olive harvesting season in Palestine is an integrated socio-ecological system, extending its benefits beyond the total number of tons of harvested olives each year”, she adds.
History
As Palestine has been harvesting olives for thousands of years, olives became a symbol of their resilience against Israeli occupation.
In 2008, the United Nations revealed that almost half of all cultivated land in the occupied West Bank and Gaza is planted with approximately 10 million olive trees.
Whereas in 2019, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that about 177,000 tonnes of olives were pressed, producing 39,600 tonnes of olive oil – roughly 30,000 litres (7,925 gallons).
Jenin, Tubas and Northern Valleys produced the highest quantity of olive oil, followed by Tulkarm and Gaza.
Israeli attacks
A 2012 study published by The Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ) revealed that Israeli authorities have uprooted 800,000 Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank since 1967.
Data by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) revealed that in a single year alone (August 2020 – August 2021), more than 9,300 trees were wrecked in the West Bank.
In addition to the destruction, Palestinian farmers in the West Bank need Israeli permits to access their land in restricted areas near illegal Israeli settlements.
Israeli settlements are Jewish communities built illegally on Palestinian land. Today, between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers live in at least 250 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In most cases, Palestinian farmers are, in fact, prohibited to access most of their land close to settlements.
