Palestinians suffering worst olive harvest in collective memory

"The Othman family sat looking out from their homes at the valley where they've picked olives for generations. Ali Badaha, 60, and his cousins Ismail, 59, and Izzat Othman, 72, recalled chasing each other in those groves decades ago, singing and having picnics while their families harvested the ancestral olive trees. At night, they and others in the hillside village waited their turn to press their olives at the village oil press among their neighbours, drinking tea and sharing stories. But this year, for the first time in their lives, the family's trees and their shrunken olives, long unpruned, have gone unpicked."

"Rather, the expansive Othman-Badaha clan, their children and grandchildren, sit around a table outside their homes on a late October evening, overlooking family groves they cannot reach due to threats from armed Israeli settlers and constantly renewed 24-hour Israeli closed military zone orders. Earlier that day, Yousef Dar al-Musa, 67, sat in his family compound, his face and stomach bruised and his arm bandaged after being attacked by Israeli settlers when he went out to his lands. Settlers beat him with the butts of their rifles in his fields, where he owns more than 450 olive trees."

"I'm not allowed to leave my house? I'm not allowed to go to the land? he said indignantly. I inherited that land from my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather And who are you, man? Where did you come from? For months, Yousef was attacked by settlers when trying to access his land, where he grows figs, tomatoes, grapes, barley, eggplants, lentils, almonds and cucumbers. His family's most valuable source of income"

Generations of the Othman-Badaha clan have annually harvested ancestral olive groves, socialized at the village oil press and relied on olives and other crops for income. This year the family could not reach their groves because of threats from armed Israeli settlers and frequently renewed 24-hour closed military zone orders. One elder, Yousef Dar al-Musa, suffered bruises and a bandaged arm after being beaten by settlers while trying to access his land, where he owns over 450 olive trees and grows figs, vegetables, grains, nuts and other crops. The harvest and community rituals were halted, reducing income and disrupting daily life.

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