Joining the Olive Harvest in Palestine: A Series of Actions
October – November 2002

Amidst all the killing, destruction, and wanton brutality, there is a tragedy-in-the-making for large numbers of people, which can be averted if we act immediately – the olive harvest. Olives are central to the lives of Palestinian families in the West Bank. Almost half of all cultivated land is used to grow olives, and it is a critical source of income for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The olive crop is particularly important in a devastated economy. Just yesterday, Major General Amos Gilad, Israel’s coordinator in the territories, conceded that 60% of all Palestinians live in poverty - on less than $2 a day! - although none, he added, are actually starving. The US Agency for International Development tells a different story, reporting that the territories are “in the grip of a humanitarian crisis”, with a quarter of Palestinian children actually malnourished.
The olive harvest in Palestine runs from early October to late November. In ordinary times, this is a period of bustling activity, when everyone sets aside other pursuits, returns to the family home, and works together to harvest the crop.
These days, however, the harvest cannot take place in many villages, especially those in proximity to settlements. Beyond the deliberate destruction of trees that has happened over recent years and the ongoing constraints of closure, curfew, and gouged-out roads to prevent free movement, this year’s harvest has been marked by numerous attacks by settlers. Shooting incidents are rife, leaving Palestinians fearful of entering their orchards. Many have been wounded in these attacks, and one man was killed last week. In other cases, settlers simply enter the orchards and systematically pick all the fruit from the trees. No one stops them, not even the soldiers watching from the hilltops, whose only job is “to protect the settlers”.
As in previous years, the Israeli peace movement has been organizing groups to join in the harvest - this weekend activists will be going to 3-4 villages in the West Bank. But this does not even begin to meet the needs. To really make the harvest possible for all Palestinians, pressure must be placed on the Israeli government to issue orders to the army to prevent the harassment of the Palestinian harvesters by settlers.
According to Maimonides, a revered Jewish philosopher of the 12th century, the very highest form of charity is making it possible for a someone to make a living. This is an opportunity.