Olive harvest in Iraq Burin
On Tuesday, 5 international activists accompanied a Palestinian family in the village of Iraq Burin to their olive groves for a productive day, without problems. Iraq Burin is a small village in the Nablus region with a population of about 1,000, situated on a large hill. The 30 dunams of olive groves that belong to Abu Haytham and his family are a short walk and visible from their home, but the Israeli army has recently bulldozed a road through the land so the soldiers can easily access them. He reported that they often face problems from soldiers who come by to keep them from harvesting.
This year’s harvest in Palestine began officially after the 3-day celebration of Eid-al-Fitr (which signifies the end of Ramadan) and a few days of rain, which many cheered on as good for the olives. During the harvest, international activists and volunteers accompany and assist Palestinians whose groves are threatened by violence from Israeli settlers or denied access from soldiers. In the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) apartment in Nablus’s old city, we divide into affinity groups each evening in order to cover the most villages in the district the next day. Currently we (and Palestinian farmers) are experiencing a serious lack of people-power. Ideally about 20-25 volunteers could cover the Nablus district, and currently we have 10. Every day villages ask for us to come work with them, and the coordinators must make decisions based on need, meaning that we go to the places that are the most dangerous for Palestinians to harvest in.
According to the Israeli High Court of Justice’s ruling on July 26, 2006, regarding the right to access agricultural lands, Palestinian residents of the West Bank have a right to access their property, and military commanders (army or border police) are obligated to protect that right. Commanders are also obligated to protect farmers and their property from attack. This ruling came in response to a petition that addressed serious violations of these rights on behalf of the occupation forces and settlers. Palestinians do not need permits from the DCO (Distric Coordination Office – the civil branch of the occupation in the Occupied Territories) in order to harvest their land.
The day of harvesting in Iraq Burin proceeded without incident from the occupation forces. We volunteers, together with Abu Haytham and his family, had picked 300 kilos of olives by 2pm, and well over that by the time we stopped at 4pm. Abu Haytham sends all of his olives to press for oil, and explained that 4 kilos of olives can make 1 liter of oil. We picked today alongside the military road that soldiers use to drive by his land, and everyone was in high spirits. In true Palestinian style, we often stopped for tea and coffee breaks in the field, in which we learned more about this family.
Abu Haytham is the headmaster of a school in nearby Sarra, a larger village. He also teaches Arabic there, to students aged 6 to 12. Since the start of the school year, the first week of September, most teachers in the West Bank have been on strike to demand back pay and a return of their salaries, which stopped when the Hamas-led government was stripped of aid by the US and the European Union in the spring. Everywhere I’ve gone this past week I’ve meet children who are not in school (with the exception of some who go to private Christian schools, for example) and teenagers complaining that they are bored. Education is so important in Palestine, and for many young people, this break in their studies and abundance of free time is a problem. He explained that he went to the school yesterday to call teachers to come in, but nobody did.
Each time one of us climbed onto a thin or unsteady branch to reach the high-up olives, Abu Haytham told us to be careful in his own warm way, shouting “Hospital strike! Hospital strike!” joking that the hospitals may strike too, and if we injure ourselves we can’t get help.
He explained though, over a cup of tea (the 4th or 5th of the day) that all Palestinians are struggling together, regardless of political party. This was illustrated through the day aswe met 2 friends of Abu Haytham’s: one a Hamas member who rode by on a donkey to say hello, and another who stopped by from the neighboring village of Tel – a member of the security guard force for Abu Mazen (president Mahmoud Abbas) who is angry at Hamas because he has not been paid in months. He also explained that there are 3 families in Tel that need international support to harvest their land by settler roads, and so we agree to harvest in Tel tomorrow.
Abu Haytham was imprisoned once for 2 years, and his home is still riddled with bullet holes from an attack by 80 soldiers a few years ago, in which they destroyed everything in his house and arrested all of his sons, only to let them go the next day, explaining that they had no reason to do this and were sorry they made a mistake. He said that he is not afraid of the army though, and that he tells them often when they try to control access to his land that Palestinians love all people in the region. He mentioned this about 3 times today, adding that our various governments (all of us volunteers are from the US and Europe) believe that Palestinians are hateful killers. He insisted that this is not true, and as usual we explained that we know and understand, while promising to tell this to everyone who will listen at home and to bring even more volunteers back next year for the harvest.
This year’s harvest in Palestine began officially after the 3-day celebration of Eid-al-Fitr (which signifies the end of Ramadan) and a few days of rain, which many cheered on as good for the olives. During the harvest, international activists and volunteers accompany and assist Palestinians whose groves are threatened by violence from Israeli settlers or denied access from soldiers. In the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) apartment in Nablus’s old city, we divide into affinity groups each evening in order to cover the most villages in the district the next day. Currently we (and Palestinian farmers) are experiencing a serious lack of people-power. Ideally about 20-25 volunteers could cover the Nablus district, and currently we have 10. Every day villages ask for us to come work with them, and the coordinators must make decisions based on need, meaning that we go to the places that are the most dangerous for Palestinians to harvest in.
According to the Israeli High Court of Justice’s ruling on July 26, 2006, regarding the right to access agricultural lands, Palestinian residents of the West Bank have a right to access their property, and military commanders (army or border police) are obligated to protect that right. Commanders are also obligated to protect farmers and their property from attack. This ruling came in response to a petition that addressed serious violations of these rights on behalf of the occupation forces and settlers. Palestinians do not need permits from the DCO (Distric Coordination Office – the civil branch of the occupation in the Occupied Territories) in order to harvest their land.
The day of harvesting in Iraq Burin proceeded without incident from the occupation forces. We volunteers, together with Abu Haytham and his family, had picked 300 kilos of olives by 2pm, and well over that by the time we stopped at 4pm. Abu Haytham sends all of his olives to press for oil, and explained that 4 kilos of olives can make 1 liter of oil. We picked today alongside the military road that soldiers use to drive by his land, and everyone was in high spirits. In true Palestinian style, we often stopped for tea and coffee breaks in the field, in which we learned more about this family.
Abu Haytham is the headmaster of a school in nearby Sarra, a larger village. He also teaches Arabic there, to students aged 6 to 12. Since the start of the school year, the first week of September, most teachers in the West Bank have been on strike to demand back pay and a return of their salaries, which stopped when the Hamas-led government was stripped of aid by the US and the European Union in the spring. Everywhere I’ve gone this past week I’ve meet children who are not in school (with the exception of some who go to private Christian schools, for example) and teenagers complaining that they are bored. Education is so important in Palestine, and for many young people, this break in their studies and abundance of free time is a problem. He explained that he went to the school yesterday to call teachers to come in, but nobody did.
Each time one of us climbed onto a thin or unsteady branch to reach the high-up olives, Abu Haytham told us to be careful in his own warm way, shouting “Hospital strike! Hospital strike!” joking that the hospitals may strike too, and if we injure ourselves we can’t get help.
He explained though, over a cup of tea (the 4th or 5th of the day) that all Palestinians are struggling together, regardless of political party. This was illustrated through the day aswe met 2 friends of Abu Haytham’s: one a Hamas member who rode by on a donkey to say hello, and another who stopped by from the neighboring village of Tel – a member of the security guard force for Abu Mazen (president Mahmoud Abbas) who is angry at Hamas because he has not been paid in months. He also explained that there are 3 families in Tel that need international support to harvest their land by settler roads, and so we agree to harvest in Tel tomorrow.
Abu Haytham was imprisoned once for 2 years, and his home is still riddled with bullet holes from an attack by 80 soldiers a few years ago, in which they destroyed everything in his house and arrested all of his sons, only to let them go the next day, explaining that they had no reason to do this and were sorry they made a mistake. He said that he is not afraid of the army though, and that he tells them often when they try to control access to his land that Palestinians love all people in the region. He mentioned this about 3 times today, adding that our various governments (all of us volunteers are from the US and Europe) believe that Palestinians are hateful killers. He insisted that this is not true, and as usual we explained that we know and understand, while promising to tell this to everyone who will listen at home and to bring even more volunteers back next year for the harvest.
posted by Steph at 11:04 PM
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