Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Settler violence v Palestinian steadfastness
Farmers in the West Bank are cut off from their olive groves by laws to defend and extend illegal Israeli settlements – when they do go to harvest, they are attacked, sometimes by the army too. JENNY KASSMAN reports on the deteriorating situation
Palestinian demonstrators gather during a protest against expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank village of Beita as Israeli soldiers take position, March 2020

GHASSAN MANSOUR and his wife Zohaira (not their real names) were delighted when they received their permit from the Israeli Civil Administration allowing them their yearly four-day access to their grove to harvest olives.

If this year’s figures bore any resemblance to those for 2020, their application was one of the lucky 27 per cent granted in the occupied West Bank.

The permit did not apply to all their land. Some years ago, acres of land on which the Palestinian couple and their family used to cultivate wheat and sesame had been expropriated by the nearby illegal Jewish settlement of Har Brakha to form a barren cordon around the settlement.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Palestinians check damage to a mosque that, according to residents, was burned during an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Bazariya, September 1, 2026
Middle East / 1 September 2026
1 September 2026
Palestinian activists help Qusra families
Palestine / 26 August 2026
26 August 2026

A small Palestinian village is under attack from illegal settlers and the Israeli state to forcibly extend their illegal settlements. It is a template for the future, writes RAMZY BAROUD

Yanoun
Palestine / 2 February 2026
2 February 2026

For those who lived in Yanoun, its disappearance is not just a local tragedy, but a stark symbol of escalating violence, displacement and impunity across the occupied West Bank, says JANE HARRIES