It’s olive harvest season in Palestine. Although many Palestinian farmers are deprived of this seasonal bounty by war, walls, checkpoints, gates, closed military zones, settler harassment, and more, the Samrin family of Wadi al-Rababa, Silwan, south of al-Aqsa Mosque, was graced with a peaceful day to harvest their olives from their trees on October 18, 2024.
Their olive trees range from 150 to 300 years old.
The Samrins have not always been left alone on their land.
The family has documents to prove their possession of the land dates back to the Ottoman Empire, long before the State of Israel was ever established. This has not stopped the Israel Nature and Parks Authority from setting its sights on the trees. In March 2020 and again in October 2021, for example, under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic, Israeli bulldozers arrived to uproot the Samrins’ olive trees, and the family had to lie down before the machines in an effort to stop the destruction.1
On this day, however, the family was able to reap a bountiful harvest of Palestinian olives to enjoy throughout the coming winter season.
