An Annual Ritual in the West Bank Now Under Threat

0:00Today on State of the World, an annual ritual ritual in the West Bank now under threat.

0:09You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories, up close where they're happening. It's Monday, November 3rd. I'm Greg Dixon. Olives and dates, staple foods of the Middle East, are the pride and joy of many Palestinians. This is the time of year when Palestinian farmers go out to the hills and fields to pick them. But in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian territory, Israeli settlers have been attacking and intimidating Palestinian olive farmers. NPR's Daniel Estrin takes us to some farms in the West Bank to see what this year's harvest has been like.

0:48At the top of a hill is a large group of Palestinian farmers waiting for Israeli soldiers to let them pass. The mayor of Mazra Asharkia village, Abdusamed Abdulaziz, said he spoke with one of the soldiers blocking the road. He said for us, wait, wait, wait, wait, because settlers are over there. He's scared to his settlers to be touched with us. Israeli settlers are spread out across the hills. Some squat in small rustic homes Palestinians built alongside their olive groves. Villager Mohamed Hijaz points to a settler across the valley. And the settlers, they went wherever they want to do. You see what he had?

1:31He's standing over there. That's one of them. The UN says this olive harvest season has been the most dangerous in five years, with more than 100 recorded settler attacks in 70 towns and villages, more than 4 ,000 olive trees and saplings vandalized. Nearby, a settler beat an elderly woman picking olives, beating her over the head with a club. It was caught on video. We want to live in peace. We don't want this war, and we want to be able to get to our land and to have a better life than what we have right now. The Israeli military told NPR it seeks to prevent friction through security coordination.

2:13This is the one day these villagers have military permission to go to their trees. It's not enough time to harvest them all. Hijaz has 1 ,016 trees. He sells his olive oil and uses it in his own kitchen all year round. Olive is my life. This is our history. The history of Palestine is the olive. American and international volunteers are also here to try to protect the farmers from settler attacks. None want to talk on the record. Israel has been deporting some activists. In a statement, police said it's to prevent them from staging provocations and tarnishing Israel's image around the world. When the soldiers give the all clear, everyone gets in pickup trucks with buckets and rakes.

3:01We hitch a ride with Maha Hamid, her husband Ghalib, and their two sons. Hugging the slope of this mountain are just gorgeous rows of olive trees.

3:15And now we see right at the top of the hill here a settler shepherd and his flock of sheep.

3:25We arrive at the Hamid family olive grove of 55 trees. The little home they built near the grove was vandalized. They say settlers stole a water pump. The family spreads tarps under an olive tree and rakes the branches. The olives are falling onto the tarp on the ground Dropping onto the tarp like rain

3:50Ghalib Hamid says they have to work quickly Because it's too dangerous to stay out too long We eat a picnic lunch under the tree And one of the couple's sons, Abd al-Rahman Hamid Drives us back to the center of the village But on the way, this happens Oh my God. Oh my God. Are there a lot of them?

4:14He's cursing as two young Israeli settler boys suddenly appear, walking out of the fields into the middle of the road as we approach. They look like young teens, ones holding a long object in his hand. Young settlers have attacked Palestinian farmers' cars this olive season. Our driver backs down the steep village road and finds another way out.

4:40At a nearby olive press in Turmos Aya village, we meet Palestinian Americans who have flown in from the U.S. especially to pick their family's olives. Municipality spokesman Yasser Al-Kham. You know, there is a ceasefire in Gaza, but as far as we're concerned, in the West Bank, we haven't seen the effects of that, the effects of the ceasefire. The settlers attacked, increased. They have machine guns. A lot of people are intimidated and fear going to their own land. So families aren't harvesting all their trees this year. We meet 19-year-old Palestinian-American Adam Guneim, visiting from Orange County, California.

5:21My grandpa used to sell olive oil in the States, but this year he's not taking any to the States because most of the trees, most of the olive trees, are where the settlers are. If we go, they just start shooting.

5:41From the West Bank's highest hilltops, you can drive all the way down to the lowest point you can walk on Earth. Next to the Dead Sea bordering Jordan are palm trees where Palestinian farmer Nadir Ma 'ali grows majhul dates.

5:59He says it takes about a month and a half for the unripe yellow fruit to turn brown. This is date-picking season. We have now climbed onto a forklift. Now we're being lifted up to the top of this date tree. Oh, this is beautiful. I am face-to-face with some plump, ripe dates ready to be picked. Bonbons. They call them bonbons because they're like candy. There hasn't been any Israeli settler violence reported around the date harvest this year. But there's no forgetting where we are. Four fighter jets of the Israeli Air Force just flew right above us.

6:45Ma 'ali says Israeli soldiers came to the farm a few weeks ago, questioned his farmhands and searched them. There's a war over water in the area with Israeli settlers, and a drought this winter has left farmers with drier dates. Nearby, a date farm and packing house scans each and every date for quality control. Alia Khatib is deputy CEO of Rift Valley Farms, a Palestinian women-run business packing about 10 million dates this season. We have both organic dates and conventional dates from the Jordan Valley of Palestine. We ship to Europe, to Australia, to New Zealand. She says since the Gaza war broke out, there's been high consumer demand abroad for Palestinian dates.

7:34Just like olives, they're a symbol. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, The West Bank.

7:49That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.