How settler violence is destroying the West Bank's olive harvest

Occupied West Bank - Midway through this year’s olive harvest in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian farmers are suffering a wave of attacks carried out by Israeli settlers and Israel’s military, marking one of the most violent seasons on record.

At least 259 attacks against Palestinian farmers have been recorded since the harvest season began in October, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) says.

CWRC documented 41 attacks committed by the Israeli army and 218 attacks by settlers, who have been emboldened by the war in Gaza and political momentum to officially annex the West Bank. 

“The attacks are worse than ever,” Abdallah Abu Rahma, Commissioner of the CWRC, told The New Arab. “Since the war on Gaza began, the settlers feel they can do anything. They attack every day - burning cars, stealing olives, beating farmers - and the army protects them. They’re trying to separate farmers from the land, so the settlers can take it.”

With the international community distracted by the precarious ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli plans to seize the West Bank are intensifying, with the Knesset voting on the first of four bills needed to formally annex the territory under Israeli occupation since 1967, considered illegal by the United Nations and the majority of states. 

Violence and settler attacks have surged in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023, with over 1,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military and settlers.

Recent political overtures around annexation have further emboldened Israeli settlers to seize Palestinian land through force.

Over the past year, 84 new settler outposts have been established, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), often appearing on hilltops overnight. And with new outposts comes violence.

On the morning of 28 October, Hikmat Shtwei, a farmer from the village of Kafr Qaddum near Tulkarem, was harvesting olives when a group of masked Israeli settlers ambushed him.

They beat him and poured gasoline on his unconscious body, unsuccessfully attempting to set him on fire. He was left with a fractured skull, a brain haemorrhage, six broken ribs, and a broken jaw. He remains in intensive care.

The settlers came from a nearby outpost erected only one day before the attack. They often congregate to set up makeshift encampments in Palestinian olive groves.

While the rugged outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law, they are frequently legalised retroactively, transitioning from a few tents and trailers to a formal settlement with permanent infrastructure and the protection of the Israeli army. 

When the outpost on the olive groves between Kafr Qaddum and Beit Lid was established, the Israeli army detained and teargassed Palestinians who attempted to approach the land they owned. The army said it was attempting to keep the peace between settlers and Palestinians, but was in reality guarding the outpost and escorting incoming supply trucks. 

“When I talked with the army after the first attack, they told me that we (the Palestinian farmers) need to go back because they will deal with the situation, and they would make the settlers leave,” Ahmed, an olive farmer from Kafr Qaddam, told The New Arab. He is using an alias for fear of retribution.

“But four days later, the settlers are still there, and no one has done anything to them. Then, around 200 settlers attacked again today, setting three cars on fire and injuring many people. The army protected the settlers but fired live bullets at us.”

Cooperation between settlers and soldiers is growing, with the line increasingly blurred between civilians and the military. Many settlers have been conscripted into Israel’s army, now charged with protecting the settlements where they personally reside. Moreover, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has overseen a campaign to provide weapons to civilian settlers.

In the village of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, the Israeli military deployed tear gas at a group of farmers and international solidarity activists to prevent them from reaching their olive groves, pushing them into the path of armed settlers - a move deemed intentional by the activists present.

Grandmother Afaf Abu Alia was sitting under an olive tree waiting for her brother, who was detained by the military in the chaos, when she was ambushed and clubbed by a settler, leaving her with a black eye and an intracranial haemorrhage. The incident was recorded, and in response to the video, the Israeli army said that it “strongly condemns any form of violence”.

Attacks are not relegated only to farmers, but to their crops. Settlers have been recorded cutting down olive trees and setting fire to the groves, a symbol of Palestinian identity and an essential facet of the West Bank’s economy. 

More than 4,000 olive trees and saplings have been vandalised during this year’s harvest, according to the UN.

“What is happening in the West Bank is not a series of isolated incidents, but a systematic policy aimed at displacing Palestinians and breaking their will. Despite this, our people remain steadfast on their land, planting olive trees through the flames,” Mohammad Omar, a resident of Beit Lid, told TNA.

Violence in the autumnal olive harvest season spikes annually, as Palestinians venture into rural areas closer to settlements.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are often strategically constructed on Palestinian farmland because under an Ottoman-era law, which Israel strictly interprets, agricultural land that is not continuously cultivated becomes the property of the state.

If Palestinians are prevented from reaching their land, or are simply too afraid to, it’s a form of de facto land forfeiture. 

In August, the Israeli army bulldozed 3,000 olive trees in the village of Al-Mughayyir, citing security concerns, clearing the way for settlers to then construct a new Israeli-only road that Palestinians are not permitted to use.

Roads are an essential aspect of Israel’s control of the West Bank, restricting Palestinian movement, fragmenting villages, and providing another excuse for land seizures.

In the past year, settlers erected at least three new outposts around Al-Mughayyir, effectively trapping residents of the village. Last week, activists recorded a video of Israeli settlers stealing olives from the remaining trees in the village.

Palestinians are no longer allowed access to parts of Al-Mughayyir or olive groves near the new outpost, because the Israeli army enforces an unofficial policy that Palestinians must remain 200 meters from settlements or face arrest.

Palestinians with trees near settlements are instructed to apply for special permits to harvest, few of which are granted. 

Afaf Abu Alia, the woman who was attacked, is a resident of Al-Mughayyir but was harvesting in Turmus Ayya as hired labour, only because her family’s own olive trees had been destroyed. 

Kate McMahon is a freelance journalist and foreign correspondent focused on the Middle East and South Asia. Based in Egypt, she reports on environmental change, human rights, and geopolitical conflicts