Kristen Ess – Director of the Committee against the Wall in Na’lin Village, Salah Al Khawaja says that settler attacks are expected throughout the olive harvest season.

He told PNN today, “We have a campaign bringing together the committees from Na’lin, Bil’in and Al Masara to help the farmers who have land near the settlements and where the Israelis want to build the Wall. The Nablus and western Ramallah villages began this morning.” During Friday's nonviolent Palestinian demonstration Israeli soldiers arrested three and injured four people.

Speaking in western Ramallah, Al Khawaja said, “The Israelis want to punish the people who get near the Wall or settlements while trying to work on their olive trees. We need this concerted effort to help them.”

With a steep incline in reported settler attacks in 2008 protection for farmers is particularly crucial throughout this olive harvest season. Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed again this year that the Israeli army would provide protection against the settlers. However any help given is described as inadequate both in quantity and quality.

Reuters photographer in Nablus, Abed Kuseemi told PNN yesterday, “They give farmers just 10 days and of course that is not enough time to harvest. And even during that time the output is less. They can’t harvest properly. Just imagine being them, with the settlers shouting at you from the near distance and the army standing there staring at you. The farmers just want to hurry up and get it done so they leave half the tree full of olives. They leave it unfinished in order to be safe.”

Speaking in Na’lin, Al Khawaja continues, “This campaign is the first strategic one between the three steering committees in Na’lin, Bil’in and Al Masara. We want to continue after the day’s demonstration to regularly support people with olive trees that they can no longer reach or that have become increasingly dangerous year round.”

Outside of the harvest season up-keep on the trees suffers as Kuseemi describes. “Farmers can’t get to the olive trees for the things they need like water and trimming. They suffer during other times and the quality of the work is diminished. The settler attacks prevent them from reaching many of the fields and then you have the soldiers who make the farmers walk great distances or don’t allow them passage at all.”

Director of the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, Dr. Jad Isaac told PNN that the situation in the Bethlehem Governorate is not any better. “There are three gates in Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala that are kept closed year round. People haven’t been able to reach their fields in years.”

Al Khawaja’s western Ramallah, known for its strategic resistance against the internationally illegal acts of colonization, is planning a local demonstration for next Thursday in support of the olive harvest and then for the day after when actions are slated to be held throughout the West Bank when the harvest will be fully underway.

The Director of the Na’lin Committee against the Wall explained, “We are trying to increase attention to the plight of the farmers because we are fully aware of the Israeli strategy to persecute them, directly or indirectly.”

He said, “The attacks on farmers while they are at their olive trees are intensifying. In the past two weeks they killed one person in Na’lin and another near Nablus. The injuries are mounting as well for people who are on the land or those at the demonstrations. This is the strategy of the settlements so we need a new strategy for the Palestinians.”

That was the purpose behind bringing together the neighboring campaigns from Na’lin, Bil’in and Al Masara villages. Al Khawaja says, “The soldiers and settlers wield guns and bombs and gas, but we are continuing to push forward with our strategy against the Wall and the settlements with increasing support on both the local and international levels.”

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