TITLE: Bitter Olives

The olive harvest is a lifeline for 100,000 families in the West Bank. However the yield has halved compared to ten years ago as a result of changing weather patterns which make it harder for the trees to grow and bear fruit, increasing settler-related violence and limited allocation of Israeli permits impeding the essential year-round agricultural activities. Palestinian owners access their fields in the vicinity of Israeli settlements at the risk of being attacked and seriously injured by settlers throwing stones and tear gas. Some farmers are left with permanent reminders of such aggressions.

Taken together, these aspects incentivize attacks to keep the farmers from accessing their groves, thus allowing for claims of abandonment and eventual seizure of the land, a throwback to Ottoman-era land codes.

Despite the danger, the olive harvest carries more than just economic significance in the lives of Palestinians. It’s considered a symbol of Palestinians' bond to the land and an opportunity to pass down traditions to children. However, attracted by the Western lifestyle, many Palestinian youths are reluctant to participate in the harvest or even work in the fields for what they consider an underpaid heavy manual job.

Once harvested, the olives are sold as food and used to make olive oil, soap and cosmetics. Before declining in the second half of the 20th century, the soap industry was the dominant economic sector in the north of the Occupied Territories.

The act of planting or destroying a tree carries a deep symbolic significance in this disputed land. While settlers destroy Palestinian olive groves as an attempt to take over more land, since it was declared a Jewish state in 1948, Israel has been committed to replacing them with European pines to make the land appear as an extension of Europe.

AUTHOR: Stefano Lorusso (Italy)

Stefano Lorusso is a photographer whose work has appeared on international news outlets such as The Guardian, Mediapart, CGTN, Middle East Eye, L'Espresso and Jeune Afrique. He worked on stories in Tunisia, Israel, West Bank, Italy and France, focusing on migrations and environmental issues.

He was raised in a small village in the Apennines of Southern Italy. Before journalism he has carried out several manual labour jobs.