TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The annual olive harvest, which finishes this week, is one of the most important events of the year for Palestinian farmers. It brings communities together and provides an income for around 80,000 families.

Yet olive farmers in the West Bank face enormous challenges. Their access to land, water and markets is often limited by Israeli settlements, checkpoints and access restrictions, all aspects of the Israeli occupation. But despite these challenges, olive farming has huge economic potential. The olive oil industry provides up to 14 percent of Palestinian agricultural income, and agriculture accounts for nearly 25 percent of GDP.

I went to Deir Istiya to meet some of the olive farmers there. Deir Istiya is a small village in the hills surrounding Salift in the central West Bank. It is famous for its olive groves.

Deir Istiya has a total area of 34,000 dunums. Approximately 6,000 dunums were designated as Area ‘B’ under the Oslo agreement in 1993. This means they are under Palestinian civil control, but the Israeli military controls security. The rest of the land, constituting 28,000 dunums, has been designated as Area C. This means that although it is in the West Bank, the government of Israel retains control of all aspects, including planning and security. In Deir Istiya, 83 percent of the total area is under Israeli government control, and the village is surrounded by seven Israeli settlements.

When we first reach the area we meet with Yaseen Abu Hijleh. He is 88 years old and one of the founders of the olive oil cooperative in Deir Istiya, started in 1976. Abu Hijleh told me about the olive press that the cooperative first bought. “Due to a lack of water we were only able to buy a half automatic press, which uses a lot less water than a fully automatic one. At the time it sounded amazing. We were the first village in Salfit area to possess an olive press.”

The cooperative has 150 members now and it has transformed the half automatic press to a fully automatic one.Mustafa Kokash, an olive farmer from Deir Istyia, shows me around the press. “For the fully automated press we have to buy water from Israel – each harvest it costs us about NIS6000,” he tells me. Shortage of water is a huge problem for Palestinian farmers, particularly in Israeli-controlled Area C, where Palestinians are rarely allowed to build new wells, pipes or cisterns. Between 1988 and 2013, Oxfam’s partner, Bimkom, reported that 94 percent of all Palestinian applications for construction in Area C of the West Bank were rejected.

Most of the farmers here have lost trees due to Israeli settlers. They have been burnt, uprooted or cut down – actions for which there is rarely accountability in Israeli courts. Since 2010 more than 60,000 olive trees have been lost in the West Bank. Farmers also face restrictions on their movements, especially in land near the settlements. To do anything to their trees they have to get a permit from the Israeli authorities.

Oxfam partner Yesh Din reports that 95 percent of crimes reported by Palestinians to Israeli police are closed, unresolved.

Mustafa told me: “Five months ago Israeli settlers cut down and burned 350 olive trees from my land near one of the settlements. These olive trees were three years old and were supposed to start producing olives next year. Buying them cost me NIS4500. If settlers did not uproot them and they reached their producing age they would have produced 150 kg of olive oil a year.”

In 2007 Oxfam started working with the Deir Istiya farmers’ cooperative. Ayoub Abu Hijleh, one of the programme officers for Oxfam, said: “we at Oxfam wanted to make the situation for olive farmers much better than it was at that time. Farmers here face their trees being uprooted and huge restrictions on when they could care for their trees.”

Oxfam and local partners run the ‘From Grove to Market’ programme, funded by the Swiss Government, which helps Palestinian farmers improve the quality and quantity of their oil and reach local and international markets. Oxfam gave the farmers training on how to take care of the olive trees, and introduced them to the best techniques in order to produce high quality olive oil and to increase the amount produced.

Oxfam also made it possible for Palestinian farmers to obtain internationally recognised organic olive oil certification. This opened up new markets in countries like the UK and France, helped them compete globally, and it increased their profits. At the moment there are 17 farmers in Deir Istiya in the process of getting their organic certification.

I met another farmer in Deir Istaya, Azzam Salman. Azzam, who is 41 years old, owns land near one of the settlements. He was given four days by the Israeli authorities to harvest it. “It is 20 dunums of land, and has almost 100 olive trees. It would need 15 days or more to harvest,” said Azzam. “In the early 1990’s, when these olive trees were cared for, they would produce 500kg of olive oil a year. Now the same trees produce only 40kg of olive oil. I can’t get to them to plough them or prune them.”

Azzam knows that the money he gets from the 40kg of olive oil is not much, but he still goes to harvest the trees to make sure he retains ownership of the land.

As I was leaving the village I couldn’t help but reflect on the immense changes these farmers have witnessed in their village. In one lifetime Deir Istiya has been surrounded by settlements, land has been confiscated and countless olive trees have been uprooted. I hope that the farmers here can one day harvest, prune and plough their trees without waiting for Israeli permits.

Written by Diana Qatamesh, the West Bank Programme Policy Officer.

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