Many Palestinian farmers demanded the necessity of providing them with serious protection with the approaching opening of the olive harvest season, which was set by the Ministry of Agriculture on the thirteenth of this month.
Many farmers expressed their fear of what the settlers intend to do against them, especially since it is a bloody season par excellence, as a result of the violence of the settlers, who are given full military protection by the occupation forces. They always attack farmers in their fields, cut down olive trees and sometimes steal their fruits.
It is noteworthy that groups of settler herds began their attacks on the lands planted with olives, under the protection of the occupation forces, in several towns in the Palestinian governorates.
For its part, the Bethlehem Agriculture Directorate called on olive growers to adhere to the harvest date, which will start next Thursday, as olive presses will open on the same day, after they have completed their maintenance, in preparation for receiving and pressing olive products.
Engineer Youssef Salah, head of the olive department in the Bethlehem Agriculture Directorate, said that the area of ​​lands planted with olives in the governorate amounts to 32,000 dunams, including 10,000 dunums of lands adjacent to the wall, and that the number of olive trees in the governorate amounts to 63,718 trees, most of which are concentrated in a house. Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, Battir, Nahalin, Wadi Fokin, Tekoa, Zaatara, Shawawra, Al-Khader, Al-Obeidiya and Beit Fajjar.
He indicated that the percentage of improved Nepalese olive trees in the governorate´s lands is 80%, while the percentage of "municipal" Nepalese olives is 20%.
Engineer Salah expected that this year’s olive product in the governorate would reach 3,400 tons, producing 800 tons of oil, and 340 tons of “Rasis” olive product, while the percentage of oil extracted from olives this year is estimated at 24%, noting that the Olive Association In Beit Jala, 2500 tons of "peat" are produced annually.
Engineer Salah pointed out that there are 5,000 olive farmers in the Bethlehem governorate, a large percentage of whom are organized in cooperative societies in Beit Jala, Al-Khader, Al-Ubaidiya, Zaatara and the Southern Rural Society. These cooperatives provide services to farmers.
He said, that large areas of olive lands in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and the western, southern and eastern countryside towns adjacent to the Israeli settlements and within the separation wall and the borders of these settlements, reach 30% of the area planted with this blessed tree, which poses risks to farmers, and these areas Which are subjected to attacks by settlers, under the protection of the occupation soldiers, and range from “uprooting, razing, demolishing arbours and agricultural rooms, preventing access to water sources, mowing, stealing and attacking farmers.” access to agricultural land.
For her part, the engineer, Samah Abu Haikal, director of the Bethlehem Governorate Agriculture Directorate, called for the implementation of the decisions of the Ministry of Agriculture during the olive picking season , and the specific dates for olive picking, which are related to the ripening of the fruits for picking the improved and irrigated municipal and Nepalese olive variety, to obtain a better oil ratio, and stressed that the lack of commitment At the time specified for picking, it would cause great losses, including those related to the ripening of the fruits, the difficulty of picking the fruit, and the breaking of branches and twigs, during the picking process, and the farmer losing more than 30% of the weight of the olive fruit, and 30% of its oil.
She said that the Directorate of Agriculture in the Bethlehem Governorate provides many agricultural services to olive growers, including guidance and training on the use of agricultural techniques, in the field of fertilization, pest control, picking, pruning, storage and pressing. A year in training seminars in everything related to agriculture in the governorate.
Engineer Abu Haikal pointed to the importance of the activities of the annual Olive Festival in Manger Square, on October 22nd, organized by the Peace Center of the Bethlehem Municipality, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Environmental Education Center, the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Rural Women Development Association, and the importance of Greening Palestine project, in cooperation with the local community, funded by the Palestinian government since 2009, where the Directorate will provide 15,000 olive seedlings to olive farmers, calling on local community institutions to participate with farmers by organizing collective volunteer work in olive picking.
