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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 202

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.

Liberation webinar, 30 November2024, 6pm (UK)
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