Cash-strapped Palestinians bank on rich olive crop

BURIN, West Bank, Nov 6: Mazuza Raja tosses a tray of freshly picked olives into the air, a traditional way of sorting a harvest so good this year that Palestinians dare dream of better fortune.

''The olive provides a main source of income for my family,'' said the 55-year-old woman, who lives in a village near the West Bank city of Jenin. ''It is like green petrol for us, because we have no other source of income.'' With an expected bumper crop in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials hope to triple olive oil sales this year, boosting an otherwise failing economy.

Increasing numbers of Palestinians -- 100,000 families in the West Bank alone -- rely on olive sales to feed their families and the crop this year ''is expected to be exceptional,'' a recent World Bank brief said.

As she sifts through olives and plops the choicest into a pail, Raja calculates that the total yield from her 200 trees could be pressed to make 30 barrels of oil for which she could earn about 2,200 dollars.

That would be enough to feed her family this year.

Fares Jabi, a government farming consultant, said Palestinians expected to earn up to 110 million dollars from olive oil sales this year in all the West Bank and Gaza, more than three times the 30 million dollars made in 2005.

Khaled Jneidi, chairman of the Palestinian Oil Council, said olive oil's low cholesterol levels were helping boost world demand.

''But the problem facing us here is marketing,'' Jneidi said, citing international sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority since the militant group Hamas came to power in March and his concerns that Israeli border restrictions could disrupt oil shipments abroad.

A foreign aid boycott -- a bid to press Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce violence -- has plunged the Palestinian economy into a crisis in which tens of thousands of civil servants have gone for months without full pay.

Some Palestinians also accuse their government of failing to divert enough funds to exhaust the olive crop's potential, particularly in the West Bank, although the amount of land there planted with olive trees has nearly doubled since 1972.

SETTLER ASSAULTS

Olive farmers also face assaults or threats from neighbouring Jewish settlers. The Israeli military, citing security concerns, often imposes travel restrictions that can make it hard for Palestinians to reach their orchards. Raed Majar, the council head of the West Bank village of Burin, said Israel had confiscated close to a third of the community's orchards to build two settlements nearby.

Since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000 when peace talks failed, settlers have stepped up efforts to impede the olive harvest on land they view as part of biblical Israel and which Palestinians seek for a state.

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups say settlers have killed three harvesters since 2002.

Yesh Din, a mainstream Israeli rights group, says it has monitored 18 instances of olive theft and violent disruptions of the harvest by settlers this year.

Settler leaders condemn acts of violence against farmers but complain that Palestinian militants have used olive groves as cover to stage shooting attacks.

This year, Defence Minister Amir Peretz of the left-leaning Labour Party has ordered the army to step up patrols and make a concerted effort to avoid settler violence against farmers.

Adam Avidan, spokesman for the Israeli military's administration in the West Bank, said the army has made providing security for olive harvesters a priority.

A series of joint patrols have been launched with Palestinians to map out trouble spots and ensure farmers access to their groves, Avidan said.

''This year, there has been a serious turnaround. The picking has gone ahead smoothly,'' he said, noting fewer settler disruptions than in the past.

But Palestinians said the protection is limited and doesn't always guarantee access to their groves.

Mohammed Afeef, 41, avoids going to his largest orchard because it is located right next to a settlement's fence, where he said settlers beat a female relative a few years ago.

Though four Israeli military jeeps are perched on a hilltop nearby, Afeef nervously works with his children in a smaller grove, near a road frequently used by settlers.

''We are racing against the clock because at any moment some settlers could come and throw stones,'' Afeef says.

REUTERS