Some days we have GOOD NEWS

A Successful Olive Harvest
Lorin Peters [retired teacher at Bishop O'Dowd High School, Oakland]
2008 October 3


Olive trees are the pride and joy of every Palestinian family. They know which ancestor planted each of their trees, and when. Some trees bear fruit for 500 or more years.

So one of the more painful injuries of the military occupation of Palestine is the felling, burning, bulldozing, uprooting, or even stealing, of olive trees. And one of the more insidious tactics of the settlers is the interruption of the olive harvest. If they can prevent a farmer from tending his land for three years, he loses his land to the State of Israel, and then it is sometimes transferred to the settlement that interrupted the harvest in the first place.

The olive harvest will officially begin October 11 this year. But the Ja’abari land and trees are the only obstacle to the merger of two major settlements one mile northeast of the Tomb of Abraham and Sarah. So local Palestinian leaders decided to harvest these trees today, before the settlers might try to harvest them or otherwise interrupt their owner.

When I was still teaching school, I could never be here in October. This was going to be my first olive harvest. Unfortunately, I developed a secondary infection and fever last night, so my teammates requested I stay home and rest. They left without me at 8 and returned about 11:30 this morning, glowing with joy.

About 20 Israelis and internationals showed up to help the Ja’abaris with the harvest, and about 20 photojournalists showed up to record the event. About 20 settlers, with several children and babies, showed up to interrupt the harvest, and 40 to 60 Israeli soldiers and police also showed up.

The settlers generally try to provoke a violent reaction – by name-calling, swearing, threatening gestures, covert kicking, hitting, shoving, or stoning. Usually, the police and soldiers just watch until a scuffle or fight or other violence begins. Then the settlers immediately scapegoat a harvester and demand the police arrest him. Typically, in recent years, the police detain the scapegoat, declare a closure so everyone has to go home, and then release the scapegoat.

Today, however, the police did not just watch and wait. They assigned a specific officer to each of the known violent settlers in advance. Each officer kept himself between his assigned settler and the olive harvesters. Whichever way the settler moved, the officer mirrored that movement. This mirroring went on throughout the harvest. My teammates said the entire event resembled a huge, intricate, unending ballet.

The scene was in fact quite chaotic, with dust flying everywhere. The settlers did in fact shout and swear and pull out the tarps catching falling olives and rush at harvesters, trying to obstruct and interrupt. But they apparently had been told, perhaps by the police, perhaps by their own leadership, to not touch. Public opinion in Israel has apparently been shifting against the settlers, or at least against settler violence.

A few harvesters were covertly kicked or shoved or knocked down. But Rabbi Arik Asherman, one of the leaders of Israeli resistance to the occupation of Palestine, kept saying, “No matter what they do, just keep picking.” One Israeli was detained and questioned when the settlers accused him of violence. He had tried to prevent a known settler from snatching a full bucket of olives. But he was then released. Videotape later showed that he had not in fact been violent.

The harvesters felt the police and soldiers did the best job they have seen so far of controlling the settlers and allowing the owner of the land to harvest his olives. After two and a half hours, the owner served tea to all the harvesters, to thank them. They had finished five trees, and harvested two large bags (perhaps 40 gallons) of olives.


Blessed are the gentle, nonviolent ones; they shall inherit the earth...
Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called the children of God.