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In Photos: Burin withstands settler violence

Posted on: November 10, 2011
Burin surviving the olive harvest - Click here for more information

by Amal

9 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In the past three years Burin has faced increased settler violence. This small village of approximately 3,000 people deal with a constant threat of settler attacks or Israeli army harassment.  Three settlements surround Burin: Yitzhar, Bracha, and Givt Arousa.  The residents of these illegal settlements make it clear that they will do whatever it takes to force the Palestinians out of their homes.  Their criminal acts range from burning olive trees, stoning farmers, and shooting live ammunition at Palestinians.

The Burin people … Continue reading


Updated on November 10, 2011
Posted under: Photo Story
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Al Jazeera: Resistance is fertile: Palestine’s eco-war

Posted on: November 1, 2011
Armed Israelis often help uproot Palestinian olive trees from ground claimed by illegal settlements [GALLO/GETTY]

James Brownsell | Al Jazeera English

After uprooting thousands of olive trees, Israel’s latest plantation may pose a fire risk to its own citizens.

They come from across the planet and meet in the shadow of Israel’s 12m concrete wall. They strap olive saplings and water bottles to the back of a donkey, silent under its burden. Former police officers from Sweden, German punks, Australian conservationists, leftist activists from the US, South African priests, and a Celtic fringe of Welsh students join Israeli anarchists and Palestinian pacifists.

These are the guerilla gardeners of the occupied West Bank.

And it’s a growing movement, with more than 120 … Continue reading


Updated on November 2, 2011
Posted under: In the Media
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Nil’in: The solitary confinement of olive trees

Posted on: November 1, 2011
Harvest beyond the barrier - Click here for more imagines

by Aida Gerard 

31 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The selective Israeli permission system prevents many families from Nil’in from reaching their land behind the wall to pick  their own olives as the olive harvest season nears its end. The families who received permissions have until the 10th November to pick their trees Most of the Palestinians from Nil’in who received permission are women and young children studying, forcing them to choose between school obligations and the important harvest of olive trees.

In the morning the families who have land … Continue reading


Updated on November 5, 2011
Posted under: Reports
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Refusing to die in silence: Palestinians resist settler violence during the olive harvest

Posted on: October 29, 2011
Olive harvesters watch Israeli soldiers after being told to stop picking olives in Burin - Click here for more images

Ben Lorber
29 October 2011 | Mondoweiss

As this year’s olive harvest sends Palestinian families across all of historic Palestine out to their olive trees, a new nonviolent resistance group called Refusing to Die In Silence is patrolling the West Bank, protecting harvesters from increased settler violence.

The 2011 olive harvest, which began in early October, has seen a troubling rise in settler attacks. On October 20, OXFAM reported that Israeli settlers have already cost West Bank Palestinian farmers $500,000 this year in destroyed olive trees. In September alone, … Continue reading


Updated on November 2, 2011
Posted under: In the Media
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The Olive and the F-16: Autumn in Gaza

Posted on: October 28, 2011
Gaza harvests despite F-16s - Click here for more images

by Radhika S.

27 October 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

Today completes another week of olive picking in Gaza.  Another week of pausing, breaths held, as Israeli tanks the color of sand moved nearby along the buffer zone, another week of children frightened at the sound of roaring F-16s, another week below the watchful eye of the drone.

Together with the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers picked olives with families near the buffer zone in the village of Burej and in two different locations in … Continue reading


Updated on October 28, 2011
Posted under: Features, Reports
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Harvesting olives as a statement of resistance

Posted on: October 25, 2011

by Ben Lorber

24 October 2011 | The Electronic Intifada

Palestinian villages across the West Bank are undertaking their annual olive harvest this October, amid fears of harassment and violence from Israeli settlers and soldiers.

While the Palestinian olive harvest is a tradition that stretches back countless generations, the phenomenon of settler violence during the olive harvest is only as old as the illegal Israeli settlements themselves. Every year around October, grandparents, parents and children saddle up the donkey and, tree by tree, day by day, methodically comb, scrape and pick sack-fulls of olives from their family’s allotted portion of the 10 … Continue reading


Updated on October 26, 2011
Posted under: In the Media
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Israeli tanks patrol olive farmers in Gaza

Posted on: October 23, 2011

23 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Olive farmers and volunteers were picking olives on 23 October 2011 when they were circled by two Apache helicopters and were faced by four tanks at certain points in the day. This video shows one of the tanks.

 


Updated on October 25, 2011
Posted under: Video
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In Photos: The survival of olives

Posted on: October 19, 2011
Olive Harvest 2011 - Click here for more images

16 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The olive harvest started in theWest Bankin early October and will continue in some villages until mid-November.  Olives have been cultivated in Palestinian land for thousands of years.  Around 95% of the harvest is used to make olive oil, with the remainder for pickles, table olives, and soap.  The harvest is worth around 364m shekels (£64m) a year to the fragile Palestinian economy, struggling under the burden of occupation.  Up to 100,000 families depend upon the olive harvest for their livelihoods to some extent, according to the UN.

Olives are also symbol of … Continue reading


Updated on October 19, 2011
Posted under: Photo Story
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Burin: Zionist soldiers and colonists collaborate against harvesting

Posted on: October 17, 2011

by Alistair George

17 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Israeli military conducted arrests, mistreated detainees and continued to prevent villagers from picking olives in certain areas of Burin, near Nablus, yesterday on October 16 2011.  International activists have been prevented by the military from attending olive harvests during the past two days in some areas and settlers harassed and threw stones at villagers picking olives in Burin today.

Two villagers from Burin were detained yesterday whilst picking olives.  Hussain Hamed Najjar, 21, was arrested yesterday morning by the Israeli military and is currently being held in Ariel, an Israeli … Continue reading


Updated on October 28, 2011
Posted under: Reports
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Honeymoon in Gaza

Posted on: October 16, 2011

16 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

I had just finished off a plate of homemade bread knaffe yesterday with a family in the south of Gaza, when we got the call: farmers in Beit Hanoun, a village in the north of the Gaza Strip, requested that ISM volunteers accompany them to pick olives near the buffer zone.

The buffer zone.  I had heard of this area back in the fall of 2002 when I had come to the West Bank for the ISM’s first olive harvest campaign.  Back then, Israeli two-ton Caterpillar bulldozers were crushing homes, orchards and all other … Continue reading


Updated on October 16, 2011
Posted under: Features, Journals
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