![Israeli forces are seen as Jewish settlers argue with Palestinian farmers harvesting olives and activists supporting them and try to stop a group of people picking olives in Ramallah, West Bank on October 29, 2025. [Photo by Issam Rimawi/Anadolu via Getty Images]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/GettyImages-2243464959.jpg)
In the hills of the occupied West Bank, a strange and painful irony unfolds every day: the same Israeli settlers who seize Palestinian land, burn our olive trees and shoot at our farmers now imitate the very way of life they are destroying. As a Palestinian farmer, every October, when the Day of the Cross (Youm Al-Salib) passes, the first drops of rain fall and the colour of the olives begins to change, I know that the season has arrived. The air grows heavy with humidity and the promise of new oil. I take my tools, gather my family and go down to the fields. These are ancient rituals, passed down from my mother, who knew the signs of the […]
