Olive Picking in Asira al-Qibliya

Yesterday I went olive picking with a big delegation of internationals and some Palestinian students in a village called Asira al-Qibliya, which is in the north of the West Bank. October is olive harvest season for the Palestinians, which is a really important time for them socially, culturally, and economically. The olive harvest has been going on for generations, and the olive trees have deep, deep meaning for the Palestinian people. A huge percentage of Palestinians also depends on the harvest for their economic survival.

Every year, though, the olive harvest comes under attack in the West Bank. Soldiers and state policies prevent huge numbers of Palestinians from even going to their farmland. Trees are burned and uprooted, trees that have existed since long before the occupation of Palestine began. Palestinian villagers are attacked with rocks and bullets by fanatical settlers. This year, 105 villages in the West Bank have been identified as being under threat from attacks and land confiscations. It's all part of the colonial project that aims to isolate Palestinians, and to ultimately eliminate their presence from Palestine.

Anyhow, there's an Israeli settlement near Asira called Yizhar, and there's been a lot of settler violence in the area since the harvest started. Settlers have been burning down olive trees, destroying farmland, and throwing rocks at villagers. One Palestinian teenager was actually killed a few weeks ago after a clash between settlers and villagers. When the clash was over, the kid was sitting under a tree, and soldiers opened fire on him. He was shot 20 times, I suppose to make sure he was dead.

We also saw a Palestinian house near the settlement that had the Star of David spray painted all over it. The Star of David, therefore, has become a symbol of colonialism, intimidation, and oppression. And the Palestinians are supposed to be the bad guys, the aggressors, the terrorists? It's really sickening how the truth is so twisted. You'll hear settlers saying things like "God promised us all of this land, we have deeper ties to the land than the Palestinians do, etc." What right do they have to say this, especially when so many of them are from the US, Russia, Germany, France...? How do they have more claim to this land than a family who has been living here for generations upon generations? And what makes them think that they're justified in dehumanizing the Palestinians to the point that they'll take any means necessary to try and expel them - essentially ethnically cleanse them - from the land? I'd love to be able to understand the psychology of these people, to figure out how they work.

Especially when you meet the Paletsinian villagers, and they're such incredible people. They were really amazing to us when we came to support their harvest. The women in the village cooked traditional food for all of us - the villagers plus around 30 volunteers, and as we ate in the olive fields, they asked us about our lives, about why we were there, what we thought about the situation, etc. Every Palestinan who I've met has been unbelievably friendly and hospitable. They'll invite you into their homes, share whatever they have with you, and just make you feel so welcome to be here.

When you see stuff like this, you develop a clear understanding of the expression "to exist is to resist." Because really, simply by being here, by living on the land that's rightfully theirs, by taking care of the land, by passing the connection to the land down to future generations, the Palestinians show their strength, their resiliance, their defiance. Continuing to live here in the face of constant abuse and attacks is perhaps the strongest form of resistance. To exist is to resist.

This is why, despite the reality that they face, Palestinians shouldn't be seen as victims. "Victims" suggests that they need people to come and help them. This isn't the case. They welcome solidarity for their cause, for people to come and show their support and stand with them in their struggle, but not paternalistic "help." "Victims" also suggests passivity, that they let things happen to them. Again, this isn't the case, because they resist and they struggle. Constantly. Just by existing.