Picking olives, I hope to return with an olive branch

It is now the very last weeks of the olive harvest season in Israel and Palestine, that brief window in autumn when the plumb little orbs dot the trees in hues of green, purple and black, ripe for the picking.  

The olive harvest should be a time of celebration, the continuation of a tradition that has spanned generations, families coming together in an annual ritual to gather the olives, resting only to take breaks of mint or sage tea under the shade of the rambling branches before sackfuls of olives are turned through the olive press and transformed into precious oil, a staple ingredient that nourishes family and supports tens of thousands of families in the West Bank alone. 

This year I am seeing up close how the continuum of the olive harvest collides with a devastating political reality, disrupting lives and livelihoods and turning it into a time of fear and apprehension as harvest is marred by violence and escalated efforts to uproot Palestinian families from their land.  

The increase in violence during the olive harvest season is not a new phenomenon; every year, extremist settlers descend upon Palestinian villages destroying property, uprooting trees, and physically assaulting farmers and their families. This year, however, the severity has been unprecedented and incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank have surged. 

Israeli security forces often actively cooperate with settler intimidation or refuse to stop the attacks as they occur, so many civilian groups have taken it upon themselves to step up. I am participating in the olive harvests under the auspices of Rabbis for Human Rights and Standing Together, organisations that support Palestinian famers and serve as a protective presence as they harvest their olives, helping deter or reduce the severity of attacks, and building solidarity between Palestinian partners and those in Israel who believe in a shared future of equality and cooperation.