The olive branch.

In mid-November 2002, Father Robert Holmes, c.s.b., of the Christian Peacemaker Team, sent us another report from Hebron (below), as he has done before (see "Collective punishment in Palestine" July/August 2002, pp. 12-13). A few days later, a dozen Israeli soldiers guarding the 450 Jewish settlers living in the midst of 135,000 Palestinians were killed, leading to renewed Israeli occupation of the city. The settlers used the opportunity to greatly enlarge their enclave and drive out the Palestinians living there, thereby continuing the cycle of violence.

Editor

Ibrihim, a Palestinian farmer, took us a week ago to see his orchard. It is nestled on the side of a hill, the top of which is occupied by an Israeli settlement. He knows the settlers have been stealing his olives and wants to harvest what remains, but fears violence from the settlers. Could we help?

We gathered CPTers from our satellite teams in Beit Ummar and Jerusalem and a dozen strong we joined Ibrihim and his family about 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, November 13. The setting was idyllic, the small orchard hugging the hillside, but the welcome was anything but. Above us Israeli settlers brandishing guns yelled, "Go! Go!" and fired shots in the air. Anne, Mary and Greg, our negotiating team, walked up to meet the armed settlers now coming down quickly in a silver pickup truck on a dirt road which diagonally bisects the orchard. Negotiation it wasn't. The irate settlers issued an ultimatum, "In five minutes we will shoot the Palestinians!" They drove back up to the settlement while the message was brought down to the harvesters. Calmly the family and CPTers continued picking olives in the lower orchard.

Alerted by the gunfire, Israeli soldiers drove their brown army jeep down the same road and met the same negotiators with somewhat better results. "The olives can be harvested below the road but not above because of the security risk to the settlement." The picking continued. As the jeep drove away up the road, the settlers above began shooting again. The jeep backed down to a place between the hilltop settlers and the Palestinians below. The shooting stopped.

Ibrihim with his cell phone called the Civil Administration, the Israeli military occupation authority who had assured him days earlier that he could indeed harvest his crop. Within half an hour the Civil Administrators arrived in their distinctive white jeep accompanied by Israeli Police in their blue jeep.

More negotiations. We thought maybe CPT might be allowed to harvest near the settlement while the Palestinian family laboured below. The opposite! The Civil Administrators allowed only the family above the road. It was CPT that was restricted to working below. Four Israeli soldiers were sent to the top of the hill to ensure there was no further harassment from settlers. About one o'clock we heard a lot of gunfire again, but it was on the other side of the hill. Settler target practice, we guessed, calculated to send a chilling message to the harvesters.

About 2:30 pm we had picked all there was to harvest and departed, happily weighed down with bags of olives. Ibrihim and family smiled their thanks as the tired CPTers headed back to Hebron in the rain which thankfully had held off till then.

Our day was typical of what has been taking place all over the West Bank during this year's olive harvest. Israeli and International peace groups have been actively involved in protecting Palestinian farmers from settler attacks. Israeli authorities are not happy with the presence and actions of the activists. At first the Israeli soldiers would either ignore the violence of the settlers, who then proceeded to beat both Palestinians and their nonviolent protectors, or declare a closed military zone and force the harvesters to leave the orchards. However, adverse publicity at home and abroad has compelled the Israeli authorities and the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) to, in fact, add their protection to the harvesters much to the chagrin of the Israeli settlers who seek to drive the Palestinians from the land.

The olive branch is a universal symbol of peace. The olive harvest in the Palestinian Occupied Territories this fall has the seeds of future peace as Israelis, Palestinians, and Internationals nonviolently resist oppression together, as Jews, Moslems, and Christians work side by side to fashion a peaceful life together.