Israeli settlers take Palestinian olives, and their harvest traditions

As Israeli settlers harvest olives on Palestinian land, farmers face growing violence and the loss of a tradition passed down through generations.

A Palestinian woman picks olives during the harvest season in the Palestinian-owned olive groves in the village of Rantes near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 6, 2026 [AFP]

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – The video shared in Israeli settler groups shows two men bashing an olive tree with long wooden sticks. Smiling and congratulating one another, they try to knock the olives to the ground. They call the result “Pure Olive Oil”.

But as Palestinian activist Bashar Qaryouti explained, the two men don’t own the land, the trees, or the olives.

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They’re Israeli settlers who set up an illegal settlement outpost on private property in the village of Qaryut, in the northern occupied West Bank, and made their way into this olive grove, some 200 metres (656 feet) away from Palestinian homes.

“No one has come near here for about three years, thank God,” one of the two men in the video says in Hebrew.

Local Palestinians know the man by name, and he does little to hide. The man is Avichai Suissa, an Israeli settler sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom – and previously by the United States – who runs a farm on the outpost. It was established more than a year and a half ago, and videos like this help Suissa raise donations for it.

On his campaign page, he says the goal is to rebuild and expand the farm, which was once dismantled by the Israeli army, to prevent it from falling “into enemy hands”.

“We’re gradually starting to work our way into the area,” Suissa said in the video.

But the land belongs to Palestinians – residents of Qaryut – who have not been able to reach it since the genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023. “A few months ago, farmers tried to plough their land, but the army stopped them,” Qaryouti said.

“After we complained, the army declared the area a closed military zone a few days ago, so settlers are going to other lands, to other olives to steal,” Qaryouti explained.

Suissa and others are part of a growing movement of settlers who have intensified their campaign against the olive harvest . The campaign, part of a settler pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank, has turned the olive harvest season in October into a source of fear and danger.

Many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank describe this year as the worst yet in terms of settler attacks, and the season has barely started.

On Wednesday, armed Israeli settlers on tractors raided lands between the villages of Ramin and Burqa, in the northern occupied West Bank. They opened fire on farmers heading to their trees.

Ali Bazzari, a 44-year-old farmer, was killed . His only “crime”, the family says, was trying to pick his olives.

Witnesses say the Israeli army prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded. Palestinians had to carry the injured through the mountains to hospitals.

The Israeli Rights Group Yesh Din says it documented 109 incidents of violence directly related to the harvest in 75 Palestinian communities between September 27 and October 6, an average of 11 per day.

Israeli settlers are increasingly attempting to adopt the rituals of the olive harvest season , while pushing out the Palestinians who have kept those traditions for generations.

Several new farms have been set up in the occupied West Bank. One shares videos of olives being pressed. Others invite Israelis to “join in” the experience.

Palestinians say the videos circulating show a disregard for the actual owners of the land taken by the settlers, and a clear attempt to appropriate the season, imitating its rituals and claiming them as their own.

Those rituals – things like collective picking, singing, and shared meals on the farms – are rooted in a deep connection to the land.

The olive harvest season may be an exhausting time of the year for Palestinians, with its hard work and long hours in the sun, but it’s a rewarding one. Olive farmers traditionally gather for family get-togethers, with neighbours and friends volunteering to help one another harvest the olives, in a cultural tradition known as “ouneh”.

The season has a light-hearted element, with debates about whose land produces the best oil, who should charge the most, and who knows how to pick the most olives and not drop any to the ground.

Older generations pass down lessons from history, such as the best time to harvest and how to nurture the trees – an inherited knowledge of climate, agriculture and the land itself.

“They planted so that we can eat. We plant so they [will] eat,” a well-known Arabic saying goes. It highlights the continuity of this inheritance, and the responsibility towards future generations.

These trees, which are meant to be protected, nurtured and passed on, are being taken away – not only by settlers, but by soldiers, too.

Hazem Sanaf, 61, stood on a nearby hill in the village of Beit Rima and watched as Israeli bulldozers ploughed through his lands in late September, after he had received an Israeli military order. The bulldozers destroyed and uprooted more than 400 trees belonging to Hazem and his neighbour, some of them decades old, and his only source of income.

“They just want to take our olive trees from us,” he said, his eyes reflecting his pain.

Hazem is not alone. Several Israeli military orders to uproot olive trees have been handed out across the occupied West Bank. Some have been carried out, while others await their turn.

In the past, the Israeli military has cited the need to clear land of trees to prevent security threats or ambushes on troops. But Palestinians say it reflects a pattern of dispossession and impoverishment.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC), Israeli settlers and soldiers have destroyed approximately 50,000 trees this year alone.

Fuad Daraghmeh, from the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya, near Ramallah, carried the thick, broken stem of a tree.

“I took care of it for 30 years,” he said, and headed home. He did not say what he planned to do with the stem, but others said that their trees had been uprooted before, and that they had managed to nourish them back to life.

Others are resigned to saying goodbye to the trees. They sit by the bulldozed trees with small hand tools, picking the last fruit of what they believe is their last crop.

Palestinians have been watching videos of settlers harvesting their olive trees, including the one shared by Suissa.

Beyond the pain, one remark keeps coming up: the method used by Suissa in vigorously beating the tree is no way to treat it, and no way to harvest olives.

“The people who have tended to their lands for decades know that,” one Palestinian activist, who did not wish to be identified for security reasons, said.

以色列定居者在巴勒斯坦土地上采摘橄榄，导致农民面临日益严重的暴力和世代相传的传统丧失的风险。

2026年10月6日，在以色列占领的约旦河西岸拉马拉附近的兰特斯村，一名巴勒斯坦妇女在收获季节于巴勒斯坦人拥有的橄榄园里采摘橄榄。[法新社]

拉马拉，被占领的约旦河西岸——一段在以色列定居者群体中流传的视频显示，两名男子用长木棍敲打一棵橄榄树。他们面带微笑，互相祝贺，试图将橄榄打落到地上。他们把结果称为“纯橄榄油”。

但正如巴勒斯坦活动家巴沙尔·卡里尤提解释的那样，这两个人并不拥有土地、树木或橄榄。

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他们是以色列定居者，在被占领的约旦河西岸北部卡里尤特村的私人土地上建立了一个非法定居点前哨，并进入了这片橄榄树林，距离巴勒斯坦人的房屋约 200 米（656 英尺）。

“感谢上帝，大约三年来没有人靠近过这里，”视频中的两名男子之一用希伯来语说道。

当地巴勒斯坦人都认识这个人，他也毫不掩饰自己的身份。这个人名叫阿维凯·苏伊萨，是一名以色列定居者，受到欧盟、英国（此前也受到美国）的制裁。他在这个前哨站经营着一家农场。农场建立于一年半前，像这样的视频可以帮助苏伊萨为农场筹集资金。

在他的竞选页面上，他表示目标是重建和扩建这座曾被以色列军队拆毁的农场，以防止它“落入敌人手中”。

“我们正在逐步进入这个区域，”苏伊萨在视频中说道。

但这些土地属于巴勒斯坦人——卡里尤特的居民——自2023年10月加沙种族灭绝战争开始以来，他们一直无法到达那里。“几个月前，农民们试图耕种他们的土地，但军队阻止了他们，”卡里尤特说。

“在我们投诉之后，军队几天前宣布该地区为封闭军事区，所以定居者们都去了其他土地，去偷其他橄榄树，”卡里尤蒂解释说。

苏伊萨和其他人是日益壮大的定居者运动的一部分，该运动加大了反对橄榄采摘的力度。这场运动是定居者在西岸针对巴勒斯坦人的种族清洗的一部分，它使10月份的橄榄采摘季变成了恐惧和危险的源泉。

被占领的西岸许多巴勒斯坦人表示，今年是定居者袭击事件最严重的一年，而袭击季才刚刚开始。

周三，以色列武装定居者驾驶拖拉机袭击了约旦河西岸北部被占领地区拉明村和布尔卡村之间的土地。他们向前往果树的农民开火。

44岁的农民阿里·巴扎里遇害。他的家人说，他唯一的“罪行”就是试图采摘橄榄。

目击者称，以色列军队阻止救护车抵达伤​​员所在位置。巴勒斯坦人不得不背着伤员翻山越岭前往医院。

以色列人权组织 Yesh Din 表示，他们记录了 9 月 27 日至 10 月 6 日期间，75 个巴勒斯坦社区发生的 109 起与收割直接相关的暴力事件，平均每天 11 起。

以色列定居者越来越多地试图效仿橄榄收获季节的习俗，同时驱逐世世代代保留这些传统的巴勒斯坦人。

在被占领的西岸地区，已经建立了几个新的农场。其中一个农场会分享橄榄压榨的视频。其他农场则邀请以色列人“参与”这一体验。

巴勒斯坦人表示，流传的视频显示，定居者无视被占领土地的真正所有者，并明显试图挪用这个季节，模仿其仪式并将其据为己有。

这些仪式——如集体采摘、唱歌和在农场共享餐食——都根植于与土地的深厚联系。

对巴勒斯坦人来说，橄榄采摘季或许是一年中最辛苦的时光，需要长时间在烈日下劳作，但也是充满成就感的。橄榄种植户们通常会聚集在一起，与家人团聚，邻居和朋友们也会自愿帮忙采摘橄榄，这种文化传统被称为“ouneh”。

这个季节充满了轻松愉快的氛围，人们会争论谁的土地出产的橄榄油最好，谁应该卖得最贵，以及谁知道如何采摘最多的橄榄而不让任何一个掉到地上。

老一辈人传承着历史经验，例如最佳收割时间以及如何培育树木——这是关于气候、农业和土地本身的世代相传的知识。

“他们播种是为了让我们有饭吃，我们播种是为了让他们有饭吃。”这句著名的阿拉伯谚语道出了传承的意义，也体现了我们对子孙后代的责任。

这些本应受到保护、培育和传承的树木，却被夺走了——不仅是定居者，还有士兵。

61岁的哈泽姆·萨纳夫站在贝特里马村附近的一座小山上，眼睁睁地看着以色列推土机在9月下旬开垦他的土地。此前，他接到了以色列军方的命令。推土机摧毁并连根拔起了哈泽姆和邻居的400多棵树，其中一些树龄已有数十年，而这些树木是他唯一的收入来源。

“他们只是想夺走我们的橄榄树，”他说，眼神中流露出痛苦。

哈泽姆并非个例。以色列军方已在被占领的西岸地区下达了多份砍伐橄榄树的命令。部分命令已被执行，其余的则仍在等待执行。

过去，以色列军方曾以需要清理土地上的树木为由，声称此举是为了防止安全威胁或伏击。但巴勒斯坦人表示，这反映出一种剥夺土地和贫困的模式。

据巴勒斯坦殖民和隔离墙抵抗委员会（CRRC）称，仅今年一年，以色列定居者和士兵就摧毁了大约 5 万棵树。

来自拉马拉附近卢班阿沙尔基亚村的福阿德·达拉格梅扛着一根粗壮的断树干。

“我照料了它三十年，”他说着便回家了。他没有透露打算如何处理这棵树干，但其他人说他们的树以前也被连根拔起过，但他们都设法让树重新活了过来。

其他人则无奈地接受了与树木告别的现实。他们坐在被推土机夷为平地的树旁，用小型手工工具采摘着他们认为是最后一批果实。

巴勒斯坦人一直在观看定居者收割他们橄榄树的视频，包括 Suissa 分享的那段视频。

除了痛苦之外，还有一句话反复出现：苏伊萨用力拍打橄榄树的方法既不是对待橄榄树的方式，也不是采摘橄榄的方式。

“那些耕耘土地几十年的人们都知道这一点，”一位因安全原因不愿透露姓名的巴勒斯坦活动人士说道。