For several years, the traditional olive harvest has turned into a nightmare in Palestine because of attacks by settlers: trees are ransacked, cut down, burned or emptied of their fruits. Or the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements physically attack the Palestinians. Example in Burin, a small village south of Nablus. Despite the blazing sun and the family atmosphere under the olive trees, the anxiety represented by the threat of potential attacks is palpable.
As she patiently sorts her olives, Umm Khaldon, 60, admits to us, the harvest no longer has the same flavor as when she was young. “I fear for my children, and for everyone at harvest time, she sighs. Last time the settlers attacked our neighbour’s son, he lost an eye, poor thing. May God protect us. Here, in Burin, we are surrounded by colonies: there, over there, above, to the left, behind, everywhere. But we will stay on our land, we are ready to die for our land.”
Beside her, her children are busy: they drop the olives on large black tarpaulins stretched out at the foot of the 130 olive trees of Yahya Qaddous, the great uncle. From the terrace of his house, he shows us the settlement of Yitzhar – one of the most violent in the West Bank – which we can see at the top of the hill. “I have land over there, very close to this colony, he indicates. Every year, the settlers burn it down. Every year, I go back there to prune the trees and plant new ones. But every year they start again, they burn them again. Unfortunately, every year, since 1967, the NGOs and the international community are aware: they see what the settlers are doing, alongside the Israeli army, and express their concern. But they don’t do anything!”
Yet these attacks are known: some are filmed by the Palestinians themselves or associations for the defense of human rights but unfortunately they remain unpunished. According to the Israeli organization Yesh Din, 97% of Palestinian complaints go unanswered. Result: these settler attacks continue to increase: in numbers – they have doubled since last year – but also in intensity, according to the NGO Première urgence internationale… They also take very varied forms, are sometimes coordinated between different settlements and outpost, all in broad daylight, often under the eyes of the army, as a report from Breaking the Silence entitled “In Service”, published last year.