Picking Olives as a 'Crime': Israeli Settlers Shoot Dead Palestinian Farmer, 50,000 Olive Trees Destroyed in the West Bank

According to Al Jazeera reporting, on October 8, 44-year-old Palestinian farmer Ali Bazzari was shot and killed by an armed Israeli settler riding a tractor while on his way to his own olive grove. The incident occurred on land between the villages of Ramin and Burqa in the northern occupied West Bank. Family members said his only "crime" was going to pick olives.

Witnesses said that after the incident, the Israeli army prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded. Palestinians were forced to carry the injured over hills, transporting them on foot to the hospital.

Bazzari's death is only a microcosm of the systemic violence during this season's olive harvest. Yesh Din statistics show that in just the ten days from September 27 to October 6, 109 violent incidents directly related to the olive harvest occurred across 75 Palestinian communities in the West Bank—more than 11 per day on average. Many Palestinians are calling this year "the worst year on record" for settler attacks, and the olive season has only just begun.

Sanctioned Settlers and Illegal Outposts

An Al Jazeera investigation found that in the northern village of Qaryut, Palestinians can no longer set foot on their own land. Since the Gaza genocide war broke out in October 2023, the Israeli army has designated the area a "closed military zone," barring farmers from going to cultivate or harvest.

But settlers face no restrictions. Local activist Bashar Qaryouti told the outlet that settlers have established an illegal settler outpost on village private land, deep within an olive grove about 200 meters from Palestinian homes. Videos obtained by Al Jazeera show two men beating olive trees with long wooden sticks, congratulating each other, and calling the results "pure olive oil."

The settler running this outpost is Avichai Suissa—an Israeli settler who has been placed on sanctions lists by the European Union and the United Kingdom, and was once sanctioned by the United States. In the video, Suissa says in Hebrew: "Thank God, no one has come here for about three years." In another video, he states plainly: "We are gradually moving into this area." He uses the related videos to raise funds for his activities; his fundraising page states that the outpost was once demolished by the Israeli military, with the goal of "rebuilding and expanding" on the original site to prevent it from "falling into enemy hands."

Qaryouti said that Palestinian farmers who previously attempted to go plow the land were stopped by the Israeli army; afterwards, the military simply designated the area as a closed military zone, forcing Palestinians to give up their olives, allowing settlers instead to "go to other lands and steal other olives."

Al Jazeera also noted that in recent months, multiple new farms have been established across the West Bank—some posting olive-pressing videos, some inviting Israelis to "join"—a move Palestinians see as disregard for the rights of the land's true owners and an appropriation of the harvest tradition.

Bulldozers and Machetes

The loss of olives does not only come from settlers.

In late September, 61-year-old Palestinian farmer Hazem Sanaf stood on a hillside near the village of Beit Rima, watching helplessly as an Israeli bulldozer rolled over his land—all this after he received an order from the Israeli military. The bulldozer destroyed and uprooted more than 400 olive trees belonging to Hazem and his neighbors, including old trees with decades of growth. Hazem said olives are his only source of income.

"They just want to take our olive trees away from us," he told Al Jazeera.

Similar military orders are continually being issued across the West Bank—some already carried out, some still pending. The Israeli military has previously explained tree-cutting operations as necessary to "prevent security threats of ambushes against soldiers," but Palestinians see this as essentially a pattern of dispossession and impoverishment.

According to data from the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC), Israeli settlers and soldiers have destroyed approximately 50,000 trees so far this year. In the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya, villager Fuad Daraghmeh carried a thick broken tree trunk home. "I tended it for 30 years," he told Al Jazeera.

Loss of Generational Inheritance

For Palestinians, the olive harvest season is not just agricultural work but a cultural ritual passed down through generations. According to Al Jazeera reporting, the traditional "ouneh" includes collective picking, singing in the fields, shared meals, and lighthearted debates about which plot produces the best oil and who can harvest the most olives without dropping them. Elders pass on to younger generations the knowledge of when to harvest and how to care for the trees—a generational memory about climate, agronomy, and the land itself.

A widely circulated Arabic proverb says: "They plant trees for us to eat; we plant trees for them to eat."

Today, in many places, only the "last crop" remains. According to Al Jazeera reporting, some Palestinians sit beside trees flattened by bulldozers, using small hand tools to harvest what they believe will be the last season's fruits; others carry broken trunks home, hoping to nurse them back to life as they once did.

Regarding the "harvesting" method seen in Suissa's videos, where he swings sticks forcefully at the trees, a Palestinian activist who asked not to be named for security reasons told the outlet: "Those who have tended their own land for generations know that this is not the way to treat olive trees, nor is it the way to harvest olives."