Honorable mention in the photojournalism section of the 2023 Monovisions Photography Awards.

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Olive oil is a lifeline for 100,000 families in the West Bank. However, the harvest 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. Palestinians owners access their fields in the vicinity of settlements at the risk of being attacked and seriously injured by settlers throwing stones and tear gas.

 

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 Palestinians youths are reluctant to participate in the harvest.

 

The olives are sold as food and used to make olive oil, soap and cosmetics, once a flourishing industry in the north of the Occupied Territories, while the olive pomace is dried and used as a fuel. In the West Bank the act of planting or destroying a tree carries a deep symbolic significance. When Israel was declared a Jewish state in 1948, native trees such as oaks and olive trees were uprooted and replaced by European pines as an attempt to make the land appear as an extension of Europe. Acidic pine leaves prevent the growth of underbrush plants.

 

I chose not to focus on military actions or physical conflicts between settlers and farmers, but rather on people’s refusal to surrender to both asphyxiating bureaucracy and illegal occupation, as well as their perseverance to maintain their rituals in a conflict zone.