Below are two essays written by Brenna Cussen Anglada. They are re-posted from: https://catholicworker.substack.com.
On Thursday, October 23rd, about 100 citizens of the Municipality of Sa’ir, a village about five miles northeast of Al-Khalil, marked the opening of the olive harvest season by attempting to harvest their olives in a location from which they have been blocked by the Israeli military and by settler violence since October 7, 2023. They were joined by at least 20 journalists and 6 international volunteers, who had responded to an urgent appeal from the Sa’ir Committee for Lands Threatened with Confiscation.
The call was for all farmers and landowners to participate widely on that day, to make the 2025 olive harvest season a “message of strength, unity, and cooperation.” The Sa’ir Committee had extended a “special invitation to all local and international journalists” to attend and cover the event, which they hoped would convey the “true picture of the farmers’ resilience and determination to remain on their land.”
The invitation was written by Yusef, our host and one of the coordinators of the harvest. In September 2024, the house that Yusef had lovingly built with his own hands was stolen by illegal Israeli settlers, who kicked out Yusef and 16 of his family members. This expulsion was part of a broader campaign of forced removal. Since October 2023, Yusef shared, 43 families - 450 people - had been expelled from the Sa’ir area. From the street, we could see Yusef’s house up on the hill, as well as several of the illegal Israeli settlers who had now commandeered it.
During the forced march, two soldiers on a hill on the side of the road cocked their guns and aimed them toward the crowd, while illegal Israeli settlers observed the scene from the hillside.
Once the group was outside of the so-called “Closed Military Zone,” between 16-20 soldiers and five military vehicles formed a blockade of the road for at least two hours, refusing to allow anybody to pass and return to their fields. Two small groups of Palestinians, likely the owners of the groves, did continue to harvest right near the soldiers, but nobody else was allowed to join them. Several illegal Israeli settlers came down from the top of the hill to attempt to harass the Palestinian harvesters.
After about two hours, most of the Palestinians left, unable to harvest their own olives. Other farmers climbed the steep hillsides to harvest in areas outside the so-called “Closed Military Zone,” but, unfortunately, the harvest was extremely scarce in those locations. Some Palestinians are predicting that, between the drought and the intense violence from the Israeli military and illegal settlers, the olive harvest this year will be only 5-20% of what it normally is.
Over and over, Yusef expressed the desire of the villagers to live in peace, to harvest their olives in peace, and to remain on their land. “We inherited this land from our ancestors. We are eating from the soil and we will remain here.”
As the invitation from the Sa’ir Committee declared, “Let us all stand united behind the blessed olive tree, a symbol of peace and steadfastness, and make this a day that expresses our deep connection to the land and our identity. Together we protect our land.”
Article 2:
“Why do you think the Israelis continue to destroy this beautiful land by building up so many monstrous checkpoints and dropping so many bombs?” I asked our Palestinian driver, a long-time nonviolent activist leading our caravan of over 60 internationals, Israelis, and Palestinians heading to the olive harvest. Despite a lifetime of activism, this man has been more careful lately with his resistance after having recently spent an unimaginable six months in Israeli prisons, suffering untold abuse.
“They want to make us all leave,” he responded. “They want to make it so unbearable for us here that we choose to leave, so they can take all the land for themselves.”
We were on our way to Beita, a Palestinian village north of Ramallah, (read about Beita’s amazing history of organized resistance here) to assist families in harvesting their olives. A joyful family event that takes place for about a month each fall, olive harvesting has become a major symbol of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Every year, Palestinians risk arrest, injury, and even death by harvesting olives on their own land. Soldiers prevent Palestinians from harvesting by randomly declaring large tracts of land “closed military zones,” arresting and disappearing anybody who enters their own fields. Illegal Israeli settlers viciously attack Palestinians and international observers, beating them with metal pipes and shooting at them with live fire.
The area’s Popular Committee (the name given to the multiple Palestinian grassroots networks organizing the nonviolent resistance to the ethnic cleansing) had coordinated the international support for the day.
The hillside where we would be harvesting was full of hundreds of trees, and close by were several new illegal settler “outposts” - groups of trailer homes used by ideological Israelis to stake claim to land. Though the more than 225 settler outposts are illegal even by Israeli law (all Israeli settlements, even the 134 Israeli-sanctioned ones, are illegal according to international law), continue to be defended and protected by the Israeli military.
Upon our arrival, we learned that three Palestinian villagers had already been beaten by illegal Israeli settlers and taken to the hospital. About seven soldiers brandishing automatic weapons—their fingers on the triggers—met us at the top of the mountain.
Aggressively, they barked out their declaration that Palestinians were now “forbidden” to access certain tracts of land where they could harvest their own olives. Though we stayed where they told us to, the soldiers soon unleashed sound grenades and tear gas upon our group anyway, as a form of intimidation, and stood watch as a menacing group of seven illegal settlers harassed our group. One journalist with our group was shot in the foot with a tear gas cannister and needed medical attention.
Throughout the morning, as we warily harvested olives, several military and settler security vehicles continued to drive around us, demonstrating how the Israeli military is in collaboration with the movements of illegal Israeli settlers. More soldiers arrived to let us know of new areas of land that were now also “forbidden” to harvest from.
After a few hours, chaos broke out. On a hill across the way, illegal settlers firebombed a Palestinian vehicle— a new Land Rover—that was being used to cart olives down the mountain.
Large flames and plumes of smoke consumed the car as a group of about 30 masked illegal Israeli settlers carrying clubs and pistols began attacking Palestinian harvesters with stones. About half of our group moved toward the harvesters and the burning car to offer protective presence, while the other half stayed back to stay with other harvesters, to film, and to take cover. As we watched more illegal Israeli settlers move along the ridge, we heard live fire and shouts of “Get down! Take cover!”
“Yalla! Let’s go!” shouted our Palestinian organizers with urgency, as they ushered us down the steep, rocky hillside. We ran from the live ammunition for about 15 minutes, helping one another slide down breaks in the rock terraces, until Palestinian vans picked us up and brought us to our vehicles parked safely at the bottom.
Members of the Palestinian Popular Committee who had been interacting the most closely with the settlers brought us hot sandwiches that they had prepared for us in advance. We counted our numbers to make sure all were safe.
A total of twenty were injured, eleven Palestinians taken to the hospital. A Palestinian suffered a gunshot wound by an Israeli settler; and one solidarity activist was evacuated to a hospital after having been beaten with batons by Israeli settlers, breaking her arm. A total of eight cars were set on fire, and one ambulance was flipped over.
“This is what they have to experience every day,” remarked one stunned international volunteer. Most of us were at a loss for words. Later that evening, we read the news dispatches of similarly violent olive harvest events around the West Bank. (See full list of injuries at Beita, as well as attacks from around the West Bank on that SAME DAY here.)
As we were driving to the next site where we would harvest the next day, I asked our driver if the day had gone as he had expected. “Yes,” he replied soberly. “We expected the violence. But it was good to have so many of us. It gives the villagers courage to continue.”
And continue they have. The very next day, the villagers of Beita returned to the hillside to harvest and show that they would not be intimidated.
Unfortunately, as it has happened in almost every harvesting location around the West Bank in the last couple of days, the military prevented the harvest from continuing.
Given such a violent start to the olive harvest season, it is looking like this year, harvesting olives will be a dangerous form of resistance for Palestinians. Those who choose not to harvest because of fear of violence will lose their groves due to Israel’s absentee property law.
Many people here believe that the ceasefire Israel was forced to sign in Gaza, while a relief for so many, will now cause the Israeli military and illegal settlers to focus their attacks on the West Bank, and speed up their plan of ethnic cleansing. It has already begun.
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