Olive harvest 2006 begins

On Friday, a friend from Boston and I went to the village of Beit Duqqu to assist a Palestinian family with harvesting their olives. I am about to accompany farmers in the Nablus region for a few weeks to do this same work, but in areas where access to their olive groves is threatened. In this case the family we worked with did not need a permit to harvest their land, and did not risk attacks from settlers. Basically we were helping to provide some labor, and in the process getting to know about the situation of this very friendly family.

Laura, their 24-year old daughter and university student studying teaching, explained that her parents are both doctors by trade, and that their 5-year old grape vines and olive, apricot and pomegranate trees provide the family with enough food that they don't need to buy much.

Beit Duqqu is a beautiful village close the the border of the Ramallah and Jerusalem districts and it's land is currently being threatened by the wall. From the hill we worked on we could see buildings that are part of a brand new Israeli settlement. Laura explained that the land was recently stolen from a family in the village, some Palestinians were killed in the process, and then the new settlement construction began.



Here are photos from the day of harvesting.