Bethlehem - "Jerusalem" dot com - Najib Farraj - Many Palestinian farmers demanded the need to provide serious protection for them 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 have always attacked farmers in their fields, cut down olive trees and sometimes stole their fruits.

It is noteworthy that groups of herds of settlers began their attacks on lands planted with olives, under the protection of the occupation forces, in many towns in the Palestinian governorates.

For its part, the Bethlehem Agriculture Directorate called on olive farmers to adhere to the harvest date, which will start next Thursday, as the 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 land cultivated with olives in the governorate amounts to 32 thousand dunums, including 10 thousand dunums of land adjacent to the wall, and that the number of olive trees in the governorate reaches 63,718 trees, most of which are concentrated in Bethlehem. Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, Battir, Nahalin, Wadi Fukin, Taqu'a, Zaatara, Al-Shawara, Al-Khader, Al-Obaidiyyah, and Beit Fajjar.

And he indicated that the percentage of improved Nabali olive trees in the governorate lands is 80%, while the percentage of Nabali "baladi" olives is 20%.

Engineer Salah expected that the olive product for this year in the governorate would reach 3400 tons, producing 800 tons of oil, and 340 tons of the pickles olive product “Rasis”, while the percentage of oil extracted from olives this year is estimated at 24%, indicating that the Olive Association In Beit Jala, 2,500 tons of peat are produced annually.

Eng. Salah pointed out that there are 5,000 olive farmers in Bethlehem governorate, a large percentage of whom are organized into cooperative associations in Beit Jala, Al-Khader, Al-Obeidiya, Zaatara, and the Southern Rural Association. These cooperatives provide services to farmers.

He said that large areas of olive lands in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and the towns of the western, southern and eastern countryside are adjacent to the Israeli settlements and within the separation wall and the borders of these settlements, amounting to 30% of the area cultivated with this blessed tree, which poses risks to farmers, and these areas Which are subject to attacks by settlers, under the protection of the occupation soldiers, ranging from "uprooting, bulldozing, demolishing arbors and agricultural rooms, preventing access to water sources, mowing, stealing, and attacking farmers." The occupation authorities also control farmers' access to their lands in these areas, as these measures and attacks prevent farmers access to farmland.

For her part, Engineer Samah Abu Haikal, Director of the Directorate of Agriculture in Bethlehem Governorate, called for the implementation of the decisions of the Ministry of Agriculture in the olive harvest season, and the specific dates for olive harvesting, which are related to the ripeness of the fruits for picking the local, improved, and irrigated olives, to obtain a better oil percentage, and confirmed that non-compliance At the specified time 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’s loss of more than 30% of the weight of the olive fruit, and 30% of its oil.

She said that the Directorate of Agriculture in Bethlehem Governorate provides many agricultural services to olive farmers, including guidance and training on the use of agricultural techniques in the field of fertilization, pest control, harvesting, pruning, storage and pressing. A year in training seminars in everything related to agriculture in the province.

Eng. Abu Haikal pointed out the importance of the activities of the annual Olive Festival in Manger Square, on October 22, which is 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, and 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 thousand olive seedlings to olive farmers, calling on local community institutions to participate with farmers by organizing collective volunteer work in olive harvesting.