Withering roots

Israeli settler attacks have combined with global warming to shrink this year’s olive crop in the occupied West Bank, threatening the very existence of Palestinian farmers on their land. The current olive harvest is expected to amount to 10 tons rather than the average of 100 tons. Instead of intervening, some Israeli troops have joined the settlers’ depredations. These attacks have surged under the right-wing government of Binyamin Netanyahu, reaching eight violent incidents daily, the highest average since the United Nations began listing them in 2006.

The UN reports that around 77 towns and villages settler extremists have not only disrupted olive picking but also torched farmers’ cars, looted equipment and damaged or destroyed more than 4,000 trees and saplings. Fearful farmers with thousands of trees have limited their efforts to gather olives from a few for family consumption, thereby losing important revenue from olive oil. It is estimated that this could harm 80,000-100,000 Palestinian families.

The UN reports that 48 per cent of the farmland in the West Bank and Gaza is planted with olive trees which account for 70 per cent of fruit production in Palestine and contribute around 14 per cent to the Palestinian economy. Ninety-three per cent of olive production is used for oil and the remainder for olive oil soap, table olives and pickles.

For Palestinians, the olive tree – which can live for millennia – is a potent symbol of their existence and their attachment to the land of Palestine. Like the Palestinian people, the olive tree grows in poor soil and survives during drought and climate change. Palestinian families cherish their olive trees which they have inherited from previous generation, assert their resistance to foreign domination – whether Ottoman, British, or Israeli – and represent their national identity and continuity.

Israel has built 160 settlements and outposts, illegal under international law, hosting 700,000 Jewish Israelis since occupying East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, areas Palestinians demand for their independent state. Some 3.3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank while 2.2 million dwells in Gaza and 2.1 million in Israel itself. It is significant that the total number of Palestinians is 7.6 million while Jewish Israelis are 7.3-7.4 million. This might be why right-wing Israelis in particular want to impose restrictive measures to keep Palestinians in check and to maintain Jewish domination over a Palestinian population which now outnumbers Jewish Israelis. The solution for this growing demographic problem would be for Israel to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli settlers in the former could either return to Israel “proper,” or agree to live under Palestinian rule.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to block shelter materials, food, water, and medical supplies from divided and partially occupied Gaza as winter cold and rain compound Palestinian misery after the two-year devastating military campaign which has displaced 90 per cent of the population and destroyed most residential areas. Palestinians have striven to keep tents from collapsing and flooding. Mattresses, blankets, and clothing have been soaked and means for drying are inadequate.

UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, deputy Nadia Boucly called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to ensure the unrestricted delivery of aid to Gaza. She said the agency had aid that would fill 6,000 trucks which would provide for Gazans for three months. This is sitting in warehouses in Egypt and Jordan thanks to Israel which has allowed only half of the designated number of trucks to enter Gaza although the ceasefire has been in place for more than a month.

She accused Israel of violating international humanitarian law as well as the judgement of the International Court of Justice that Israel is obliged to ensure Gazans nave the essential supplies for daily life. The court also ruled that Israel is obliged to work with UNRWA which dismissed Israeli accusations that agency staff were members of Hamas which killed 1,200 and abducted 250 Israelis in an attack on Oct. 7, 2023. This, the incident which prompted Israel to launch full-scale war on Gaza and to crack-down on the West Bank.

To understand the thinking of extremist Israelis it is essential to listen to their pronouncements. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Nov. 14, 2025, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. It is an invention with no historical, archaeological or factual basis. A collection of migrants from Arab countries to the Land of Israel does not constitute a people.” Ben-Gvir simply reverted to the 1969 statement of ex-Israeli premier Golda Meir. It was regarded to be the most infamous example of Israeli denial of a distinct Palestinian identity and history on the land Israel settled and conquered by war. Palestinians were and are the native people identified with the land of Palestine while all – yes, all – Israelis are alien intruders.

While this was the typical attitude toward indigenous people in territory foreign powers had conquered and colonised, this is no longer fashionable. Israelis must come to terms withPalestinian farmers harvesting their olive trees, living in Palestinian villages, towns and cities, and having a distinct existence for multiple millennia in this ancient land where Jewish stewardship was fractured and fitful. Today’s Israeli Jewish population has no direct ethnic connection with Palestine and had demonstrated little interest in establishing one at the end of the 19th century when Theodor Herzl established the Zionist movement.

Photo: TNS