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David Ward MP's West Bank Diary - Day Three
December 9, 2012 7:26 AM
A Palestinian woman collects olives at an olive orchard in the West Bank
Do you like olives? I know that I do. To some an olive is an olive is an olive. Should it matter where the olives are grown?
Yesterday we visited a small and very old Palestinian village called Kufur Quddum in the northern West Bank. There are less than 4,000 people living in the village and 80% of the land is made up of olive groves.
In addition to the farming the locals used to travel to the local towns, such as Nablus, to work but the Israelis have blocked the road extending by 9 miles the distance to travel. More seriously much of the farm land owned by the local farmers is in Area C and the Israelis have built a barrier stopping the farmers from reaching their own land.
Rights of access to the farm land are limited to a few days per year to prepare the land and a few weeks, if they are lucky, to harvest the crop. Sometimes the access is delayed until after the crop is ruined and sometimes the Israeli settlers destroy the crop before the Palestinian farmers arrive for the harvest.
Since July 2011 weekly peaceful demonstrations take place by the villagers in protest at the blocking of the road. Each week the IDF turn out in force with dogs and gas to force the protesters back into their village.
Remember these are not religious extremists or terrorists - they are just farmers trying to make a living from the land that is theirs and that their families have farmed for generations.
As we stood on the hillside we could see several other hills across the horizon on the other side of the barrier and there were all the new Israeli settlements complete with their extensive olive groves. As I stood with one of the local farmers he pointed out on a far hillside on the other side of the barrier his own land - I asked him whether he had managed to gain access to his land to harvest his crop and he told me that he had - but his trees had been hacked at by the settlers to destroy the crop.
Despite all this the farmers try to continue to farm the land on their side of the barrier and along with other villages work together in a cooperative to produce olive oil, mainly for the domestic market but some of which is exported.
Should it matter where olives are grown? I think so. Do you know where are the olives grown that you eat?