Occupied Jerusalem-SANA
With the beginning of the olive harvest season in the West Bank every year, the suffering of Palestinian farmers is exacerbated by the escalation of their attacks by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers, from cutting down trees, burning them, and bulldozing their fields, to stealing the fruits, in addition to preventing farmers from accessing their lands, especially those located behind the separation wall. racist.
Harvesting the crop is a daily journey fraught with dangers, for which farmers may pay with their lives, and despite the brutality of the occupation’s attacks, the Palestinians continue to confront it and defend their olive trees. The years are a symbol of their clinging to their identity and steadfastness in their land.
In a statement to SANA reporter, Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission, explained that the occupation forces and settlers have escalated their attacks since the beginning of the olive harvest season this year, as 1245 attacks were documented in the West Bank, during which dozens of farmers were injured by bullets and poison gas canisters, in addition to uprooting and burning more From 1850 fruitful olive trees, stressing that the crimes of the occupation will not prevent Palestinians from accessing and defending their fields.
In turn, Ghassan Daghlas, the official in charge of the settlement resistance file in the northern West Bank, pointed out that the occupation seized large areas of land planted with olive trees in the villages of Jalud, Beit Dajan, Al-Sawiya, Beta and Qaryut in Nablus, and deprived the Palestinians of them in preparation for their annexation of the settlements, and its forces deployed on the roads leading to Nablus. They often seize the season after harvest, impound vehicles, and force farmers to take bumpy roads to reach their fields.
Douglas indicated that the two olive-rich cities of Nablus and Salfit have been subjected to intense attacks by settlers, amounting to 233 attacks since the beginning of the harvest season this year, the latest of which was the crime of spraying more than 100 olive trees in the village of Jalud with toxic chemicals.
Regarding the daily suffering of farmers in accessing their fields, the head of the Jalud village council, Raed al-Haj Muhammad, said: The occupation continues its attacks on farmers in Jalud, by forcing them to wait for long hours under the barrel of guns to reach their fields, and shooting them, which led to injury. A number of them, in addition to the settlers’ incursions into the lands, burning or cutting down trees, and stealing their fruits, stressing that the villagers wrote the epic of steadfastness by challenging the occupation and settlers by reaching their lands to pick the remaining olives in their fields.
For his part, the coordinator of the popular resistance in Qalqilya, Murad Shteiwi, indicated that the occupation deprived dozens of farmers in Qalqilya and Salfit whose lands are located behind the apartheid wall from accessing them to pick olives, as part of its attempts to seize them, explaining that Palestinian youth formed groups to help farmers pick olives within The national campaign “Fazaa” and “You are not alone” confirms the continuation of clinging to the land, and resisting all the plans of the occupation aimed at seizing and Judaizing it.
Mohammed Abu Shabab
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