Protecting Palestinian Olive Groves Yields Fruitful Results

November 13, 2007

Jews and Arabs plant olive tree saplings in a West Bank village at a tree planting ceremony organized by NIF.

The olive picking season has ended in the West Bank on a successful note. Volunteers reported enhanced protection from the Israeli army for Palestinian farmers, and significantly fewer incidents of vandalism against Arab-owned olive groves.

According to Uri Pinkerfeld, who set up the Villagers Group five years ago, the military authorities are now much more rigorous in preventing sabotage by extremist Jewish vigilantes. The Villagers Group is a volunteer-run watchdog initiative which presents the complaints of Palestinian olive growers to the Israeli army. Pinkerfeld, 80, a retired farmer from Kibbutz Revadim in southern Israel, was a recipient of one of NIF UK's three Human Rights Awards in 2007 for his work in rehabilitating Palestinian olive groves damaged by their Jewish neighbors.

Uri Pinkerfeld (right) together with Trevor Pears, Executive Director of the Pears Foundation, a leading sponsor of NIF UK.

"There is almost no vandalism today against Palestinian olive groves,” said Pinkerfeld, who monitors events in three West Bank villages near Nablus."Nor do settlers come any more to impede olive picking. But we must remain vigilant because there have still been incidents of olives being stolen and attempts to expropriate land by Jewish settlers."

The Villagers Group, which is backed by the Kibbutz Movement, works together with NIF grantees BINA: Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture and the Coalition for Olive Pickers, which includes Rabbis for Human Rights and other members of the NIF family. NIF has also enlisted these organizations to plant saplings to replace trees that were destroyed by vandals as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the problem and put pressure on the Israeli army to enforce law and order.