Salfit Olives Between Fear and Loss... Farmers Await the Harvest Season with Anxiety

Salfit - Afaq News - Ahood Al-Khafsh - As the olive picking season approaches, farmers in Salfit Governorate are welcoming their season this year with increasing anxiety, amid Israeli assaults on trees and agricultural lands, and restrictions that prevent some of them from reaching and caring for their fields, threatening part of their crop and their annual source of income.

Olives are considered one of the most important agricultural crops in the governorate, not only for their economic value but also for their connection to the lives of families who have inherited the cultivation and care of these trees from generation to generation. However, this current season comes loaded with fears of new losses added to what farmers have suffered over the past years.

Farmers recount stories about trees they have planted and cared for for decades, and about seasons that brought family members together in the fields, before those trees became a source of concern due to the practices of the Israeli occupation and its settlers, amid fears of losing their fruits, damaging them, or uprooting them.

Farmer Khalil Al-Taqtaq, 78 years old, from Salfit, says that he and his family have been deprived of picking their olives for four years due to being denied access to their land located behind an iron gate. He explains that his land, which spans 42 dunams, contains about 450 ancient olive trees, which used to produce between 150 and 170 tins of oil annually, forming a primary source of livelihood for his family.

Al-Taqtaq says: "We are waiting for this season with great anticipation, but today we do not know if we will reach our trees or if we will lose a whole year's harvest." For him, the issue is not just about losing a crop, but extends to a family income that they look forward to year after year.

Elderly Fatima, 80 years old, cries over the situation she has reached, after being deprived for the second consecutive year, along with her family, from accessing her land in the Al-Matwi area. She says, with tears preceding her words: "I took care of the olive trees more than I took care of my children, I accompanied them year after year, and I worked hard for them, watered them, and nurtured them, and today I am deprived of them. In a good season, we used to produce about 40 cans of oil, but today we only produce 10 cans, due to our inability to reach the land as a result of the assaults by the settlers residing in the outpost." While trying to hold back her tears, she adds painfully, "My loss is not just a season of olives, but the uprooting of years of toil, memories, and a livelihood I have waited for all year."

In Wadi Al-Sha'er, citizen Nashat Ishtayeh received another blow to his season, after settlers cut down about 40 ancient olive trees he owns. He says with sorrow and pain that these trees were part of his family's source of production, and losing them means losing trees that took many years to reach the production stage, which cannot be compensated in one season or year.

According to the Director General of Agriculture in Salfit, Engineer Ibrahim Al-Hamd, farmers face difficulties in accessing their lands even during the period leading up to the harvest, which requires preparing the fields, cleaning them, and carrying out the necessary agricultural work.

Al-Hamd pointed out that the spread of settlements and outposts in various areas of the governorate complicates the situation further, explaining that there are 14 outposts and 24 settlements established on the lands of citizens in Salfit.

He clarified that forecasts indicate a production of about 2400 tons of olive oil in Salfit this year, if farmers are able to access all the olive trees and harvest the entire crop, which makes any restrictions preventing access to the lands a direct threat to the quantity of production and the economic return for farmers.

The repercussions do not stop at the loss of the season's crop, as Al-Hamd pointed out the uprooting of more than 5,000 ancient olive trees in various areas of the governorate since the beginning of the year, in a loss that strikes at the root of agricultural wealth before its fruits reach the markets or family tables.

The ancient trees in Salfit Governorate acquire a value that exceeds their annual production, as they require decades to reach the stage of yielding. Therefore, uprooting them means losing an agricultural resource for years to come, in addition to the economic burdens borne by families that rely on oil and olives for their livelihood.