Emboldened Israeli settlers lead a surge of attacks on Palestinians' olive harvest

BURQA, West Bank (AP) — Attacks by Jewish settlers have surged this year during the Palestinians’ annual olive harvest in the occupied West Bank .

Scenes of Palestinians, journalists and diplomats beaten by masked men spotlight how settlers have been establishing themselves deeper in Palestinian communities, emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s government. At least four Palestinians have been killed this season, whether by settlers or Israeli soldiers.

The violence has brought new international criticism at a time when Netanyahu faces a razor-thin race in next Tuesday's legislative elections. But the prime minister is doubling down. After a West Bank shooting attack blamed on Palestinian gunmen that killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday, Netanyahu praised settlers as “heroic” and vowed to “destroy the terror infrastructure and establish more and more settlements.”

Here’s a look at the olive harvest and the tensions around it:

Olive groves across the West Bank represent both heritage and needed income. The harvest traditionally has been a joyous occasion for Palestinians to gather and be thankful for another year.

“In the past, harvesters would enjoy a month of singing and fixing tea and coffee in their groves. Now the journey is full of pain and risk,” said Abbas Milhem of the Palestinian Farmers’ Union.

But the harvest has become a time of friction as Palestinians spread out and, simply by picking olives, assert their ties to the land that many Israeli settlers say should belong to Israel instead.

Olive trees have been destroyed and olives stolen in over 325 incidents of settler violence this harvest season, which began in late September, Israeli rights group Yesh Din says. Over 130 of those incidents involved physical assaults on harvesters.

Yesh Din and the farmers’ union call this harvest the most violent in recent history.

One Palestinian, Abel Atif Bazaari, said last week outside the village of Burqa near Nablus that olives are more than just a crop. He ran his fingers along a branch. “Protected, respected. I think in all religions, olives are respected,” he said. “This is the identity of the Palestinians.”

His cousin, a security guard, was killed when responding to an attack on the family's land this season. Bazaari was hurt. A bandage covered his temple near his blackened left eye. They have paused the harvest, he said. The land has been in the family for over a century.

Since 2023, Israeli settlers have erected more than 180 new outposts in the West Bank, most of them close to Palestinian communities and often on their farmland, according to Peace Now, a watchdog group. Settlers from those outposts have largely been behind intensifying attacks on Palestinians since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

On Wednesday, a joint statement by activists and rabbis from the United States, Israel and the West Bank called the attacks on the harvest and Palestinian farmers part of “ethnic cleansing” in the territory. Israel has denied allegations, previously made by Britain as well, of ethnic cleansing.

The outposts — often made up of a few mobile homes — are not authorized, but the military rarely takes action against them. Palestinians trying to fend off the settlers have been accused of throwing rocks or chunks of concrete.

Netanyahu’s government relies on the support of far-right parties and has dramatically expanded settlements as a way to strengthen Israel’s grip on the West Bank and prevent any potential Palestinian state. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader who is in charge of settlement policy, has sought to steer funding to unauthorized outposts.

Most of the international community views all settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace. “The clear goal is to drive communities off their land,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday of settler attacks.

The olive harvest draws activists, diplomats, rabbis, journalists and others who seek to show solidarity with Palestinians and document attacks and intimidation.

Sometimes they are attacked, too.

A photographer for The Washington Post, Heidi Levine, is recovering after settlers last Friday beat her so badly that several vertebrae were broken and a finger was nearly detached. The following day, masked settlers wielding metal bars attacked a French mayor among a group of diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland at another harvest.

On Wednesday, a U.S. congressional candidate from New York , Brad Lander, was among a group of American rabbis and others detained by Israeli troops at a harvest before being released hours later.

Rights groups say settlers are rarely punished, though several were arrested after last week’s high-profile attacks. Police said most were later released as investigations continue.

It’s becoming harder for Palestinians to reach their land. Peace Now says they have been required to coordinate with Israel’s military to access more of their privately owned farmland than previously. The West Bank is a patchwork of areas under varying levels of Palestinian civil and Israeli military control.

Some of those who coordinate with the military are still attacked, Milhem with the farmers’ union said. He estimated that roughly 110,000 Palestinian families depend on privately owned groves for income that reaches into the millions of dollars in all.

“Palestinian farmers do not — and should not — need permits to harvest their own olive fields,” Lander said Thursday on X, adding that Wednesday’s visit was meant to “call attention to the horrors of the occupation.”

Settler attacks on Palestinians rarely bring an outcry in Israel, but some Israeli senior politicians and officials have spoken out after Levine was beaten.

Netanyahu’s main rival in the elections, Gadi Eisenkot, said on X that “a handful of criminals is burning up the last shreds of legitimacy left to the state of Israel.” Eisenkot has backed settlement building in the West Bank but says he would shut down the unauthorized outposts.

Levine told the AP that Israeli President Isaac Herzog told her “he’s ashamed for what happened: ‘These people are a stain on Israeli society.’” Herzog has denounced settler attacks against Palestinians in the past.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has questioned the circumstances around some attacks on the olive harvest and alleged a “coordinated campaign to smear Israel” following the weekend attack on diplomats.

He has blamed overall attacks in the West Bank on a small number of troublemakers.

Metz reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.