How Israel Has Destroyed the Olive Harvest
In 2018, as always, IWPS spent September – December supporting Palestinians in Salfit, Northern West Bank, during the olive harvest. As we spent our days picking olives with numerous families across the region, I began to understand that the olive…
Harvesting Olives, Resisting Violence
The olive harvest this year is poor. Maybe because it is one year good, next year not so good-like apples; maybe because there is not enough rain. But olives remain the core of the economy here around Salfit and Nablus. Around Al…
This Close!
This close? Yes, the Bruchin settlement next to our most recent pick was this close. A fence, a tarmac road (constructed by Palestinians) and then settler houses, smart cars in the drives, playgrounds, shutters down. The farmer had…
Olive Harvest – Impressions of Burin
During the last days we have been picking olives with different families in Burin, a Palestinian village south of Nablus. Our time in the fields was spiced with cooking Arabic coffee and frying eggs over small fires, eating homemade hummus…
Yitzhar Settlers Attack Urif Olive Harvesters
IWPS in Palestine 2017 Urif is a Palestinian village located 13 kilometres south of Nablus. Urif has the bad luck to have an unwanted neighbour; the Yitzhar illegal settlement, with radicalized Jewish Orthodox residents known for their brutality toward all…
The Olives of Beit Furiq
On Saturday 28 October IWPS and ISM joined farmers from the Palestinian village Beit Furiq who were picking olives near the settler road leading to the nearby Itamar illegal settlement. This Orthodox settlement is known for its history of violent…
Olive Harvest: Occupied
Kufr Qalil is one of the most dangerous places to pick olives north of Ramallah. Several years ago fanatical illegal settlers from Bracha descended from the top of a hill and broke a jaw of an elderly olive picker. Ever since the Kufr…
Volunteer voices: The olive harvest
My daughter says “you are writing about the olive harvest again”. Firstly, for me that is what I am doing most days, but secondly it is a key economic, social and cultural event for Palestinian communities at this time of…
Picking Olives…Picking Hope
Little Mohammed has gone to the field this morning with his father Amjad and two IWPS activist-volunteers to harvest olives. The sun is bright and the air is fresh. Amjad is working hard and fast to pick olives from his…
Kafr Qaddum – Olives, demos and collective punishment
6 November 2015 The village of Kafr Qaddum in the district of Nablus is particularly badly affected by the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system. The illegal Israeli settlement of Qedumin was established nearby in 1974 and its more recent…
Israeli Soldiers and Ytzhar Illegal Settlement Prevent Urif Olive Harvest
Urif families were informed that they were to have a permit to pick olives on 26th and 27th October ´15 on their land in zone B bordering but alongside zone C. Four families arrived at about 8am on 26th and…
Hares Man Beaten and Tortured
International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) Deir Istiya, Salfit Telephone: 09 251 46 44 Website: http://iwps.info Human Rights Report No.481 Human Rights Summary: A 33 year old man kidnapped by IOF while picking olives on his land Date of incidents: October 16, 2015 Place: Hares, Salfit, oPt Witnesses: His…
A Struggle to Harvest
Abu Said´s struggle to harvest on his land ´I will kill you all´, said the illegal Revava settler hurling abuses in Hebrew and in English at Abu Saed and a group of IWPS volunteers accompanying him, as he surged from…
Deaf Valley Farmers Call For International Accompaniment During the Olive Harvest
Palestinians who own land in Deaf Valley are nearly surrounded by illegal settlements and settler roads and are under constant alert to the possibility of harassment or attacks by illegal settlers.
Fanatical Settlers From the Illegal Tapuah Settlement Injure Yasouf Couple
‘The rocks were raining all around us’, said Ala. She cried out to her husband and they both started running towards their car, which was parked about 30 meters away.
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