Tel village, Palestine's fig capital, is being dried out by Israeli settlements

The village of Tel, southwest of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, is a place whose name became synonymous with the fig tree. Its lands and orchards have long provided both livelihoods and identity for generations of Palestinian residents.

Today it is a frontline of attacks by the Israeli occupational forces and fanatical settlers.

Located about seven kilometres from the centre of Nablus, Tel is one of the largest Palestinian villages in the governorate in terms of both agricultural land and population, with around 7,000 residents.

Although it is historically renowned for producing some of the finest figs in Palestine, its name has also become associated over recent decades with Palestinian resistance and the steadfastness of its residents in the face of illegal Israeli settlement expansion that consumes its land year after year.

The village returned to the forefront of events in the occupied West Bank on 24 July, following a massacre in which four of its residents were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

This was followed by the Israeli authorities' announcement of four additional settlement outposts, a move Palestinian residents see as a continuation of a policy to suffocate and isolate the village from its surroundings.

History on a hill

The story of Tel village does not begin with this recent massacre. 

Tel's story stretches back decades to when the village was established on an elevated hill that gave it its name. It later became one of the most important agricultural villages in the northern West Bank and continues to supply Nablus with agricultural and livestock products.

The name "Tel" is linked to its geography, as it was built on a hill overlooking the surrounding plains and valleys, giving it a strategic position since ancient times. Tel is surrounded by the villages of Iraq Burin, Madama, Surra, Jit and Far'ata, while a main road connects it to Nablus, historically making it a transit point between the countryside and the city.

Most residents depend on agriculture, alongside government jobs and employment in the private sector, while agricultural land forms the backbone of the local economy. 

The village is distinguished by around 8,000 dunams of fertile land out of its total area of approximately 14,000 dunams, where, alongside fig trees, olive trees, almond trees and vineyards flourish.

It is difficult to speak about Tel without speaking about figs.

Residents describe the tree as "the village's memory", with families passing down its cultivation from one generation to the next. Fig orchards cover vast areas of the village's western and southern lands.

Tel is one of Palestine's largest fig-producing areas, yielding around 15 tonnes of figs at the peak of the harvest season. It is renowned for the diversity and high quality of its varieties, thanks to the moderate climate and fertile soil.

Among the best-known varieties produced in the village are white figs, Asali, Hamadi, black figs, Sultani and Zuraiqi, in addition to rare local varieties that farmers have carefully preserved for decades.

The fig's importance extends beyond agriculture. It represents a major source of income for dozens of families, with produce marketed across Palestinian markets.

A significant proportion is also used to produce dried figs, jams, molasses and traditional sweets.

Over recent years, the annual Fig Festival in Tel has become one of the most prominent agricultural events in the West Bank, attracting thousands of visitors from across the Palestinian territories, according to Palestinian activist and journalist Firas Al-Saifi.

Al-Saifi told The New Arab that the annual festival serves as a platform for marketing agricultural and handicraft products, supporting farmers, and introducing the public to the importance and varieties of Palestinian figs.

It also stimulates commercial activity within Tel, as the village's streets are transformed into an open market for local produce.

According to Al-Saifi, the aim extends beyond agricultural marketing to reinforcing Tel's identity as one of Palestine's leading fig-producing areas and strengthening the resilience of farmers whose lands are threatened with confiscation by the Israeli authorities.

The fig harvest in Tel begins every July, reaching its peak in August and continuing until mid-September. 

This year, however, the season faces unprecedented challenges due to settlement expansion consuming the most important fig- and olive-growing lands, in addition to the aftermath of the attack by dozens of settlers, protected by the Israeli army, on 24 July, which transformed the situation entirely.

Festival activities were cancelled, and orchards became sealed-off areas amid the presence of Israeli soldiers and settlers, while large areas of agricultural land were bulldozed, with preliminary estimates indicate around 2,000 dunams were destroyed.

A history of resistance

Like many villages around Nablus, Tel has a long history of Palestinian resistance.

Released prisoner Mohammad Ramadan told TNA that since the First Intifada in 1987, and later during the Second Intifada (between 2000 and 2005), the village had produced "a large number of martyrs, prisoners and wounded, while many of its residents emerged among the ranks of various resistance factions".

Ramadan noted that during the Second Intifada, Tel was one of the villages from which fighters carried out major operations against Israeli forces and settlers. 

Some of these operations resulted in the deaths and injuries of numerous Israeli soldiers and settlers.

He explained that this made the village a constant target of Israeli military raids, arrests and sieges.

Like dozens of villages and towns across the occupied West Bank, many homes in Tel have been demolished or raided, while the village has witnessed repeated confrontations with Israeli forces, particularly during large-scale incursions into Nablus governorate.

Residents believe this history has placed Tel under permanent Israeli security surveillance, reflected in tighter military measures and intensified settlement activity around the village.

More than a quarter of a century ago, settlement pressure on Tel intensified with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, when the "Gilad" outpost was established on large areas of its western land.

Since then, the village has lost thousands of dunams, while farmers' access to their land has become conditional on prior coordination with the Israeli army, which is frequently denied or delayed, leading to the neglect of large areas of farmland.

The outpost became a permanent base for settler attacks, with settlers assaulting farmers during the olive and fig harvests, preventing them from cultivating their land, and attacking property and livestock.

In 2018, the outpost expanded through a new extension known as "Havat Gilad", accompanied by the construction of settlement roads, land clearance, and the uprooting of thousands of trees to make way for vineyards belonging to settlers.

Over the years, the outpost expanded towards the archaeological area of Kafrur, moving ever closer to Palestinian homes and becoming a recurring launch point for settler attacks.

Encircled on all sides

Settlement expansion has not been confined to the western side of Tel.

The head of Tel Village Council, Walid Zidan, said settlers established another outpost several months ago on the eastern side near the "Al-Murabba'a" area separating Tel from the villages of Madama and Burin, leaving the village effectively surrounded from two directions.

To the south, Zidan told TNA, the military position established by the Israeli occupation in 2001 above Tel Secondary School for Boys and Rouhi Al-Hindi Primary School remains in place today "in a scene that encapsulates daily life in the village, where students receive their education under the watch of Israeli soldiers".

Following the events of 24 July, the situation took what Zidan described as "a more dangerous" turn, as "Israeli forces began bulldozing vast areas of western land and uprooted thousands of olive trees before starting construction of a new settlement outpost just metres from residents' homes".

Residents believe this development effectively closes off the village's last geographical outlet, turning it into an isolated residential enclave after losing most of its agricultural extension in both the east and west.

Residents of Tel do not see what is happening merely as settlement expansion but as an attempt to reshape the region's geography and demography.

Palestinian community activist Fadi Assida told TNA that "the attacks are not limited to land confiscation but also include uprooting trees, stealing livestock, preventing shepherds from reaching grazing areas, blocking agricultural roads, and attacking farmers during harvest seasons".

Assida explained that over recent years, Tel has recorded hundreds of attacks carried out by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces, including assaults on farmers during the olive harvest, the burning of crops, the theft of horses and livestock, and preventing landowners from accessing their fields.

Despite this, Assida stressed that farmers "remain committed to their land, believing that every agricultural season represents a form of steadfastness".

"Tel" is not simply another Palestinian village on the map of Nablus. It is the story of a place that encapsulates a significant part of the Palestinian narrative: agricultural land, home to families whose lives are bound to the land, and at the same time an open arena for a daily confrontation with occupation and settlement.

While farmers continue tending their fig and olive trees despite the risks, settlers continue expanding their outposts at the expense of those lands in a conflict whose enduring question appears to be, "Who remains rooted in the land?"

For that reason, Tel represents a Palestinian model that embodies the intersection of agriculture and identity and of attachment to the land and resistance against attempts to uproot people from their roots.

Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here.