Israeli bulldozers destroyed scores of olive trees in Palestinian villages near Jenin on Wednesday, part of an ongoing campaign of uprooting olive groves across the occupied West Bank. The latest operation hit farmland in Ajjah and Zububa, near the separation barrier, just weeks before Palestinian farmers were due to begin this year’s olive harvest. The machinery moved through land that families say has been worked for generations. The harvest season was still ahead, and the trees were already gone.
The State's Hand on the Land
Zaki Jaradat, head of Zububa Village Council, said Israeli forces had uprooted more than 2,950 olive trees across more than 300 dunams of agricultural land since the start of the year. That figure gives the destruction a bureaucratic neatness it doesn’t deserve. On the ground, it means orchards flattened, income cut off, and family land stripped bare before the season that matters most. Fuad Yahya Maqalda watched from the rooftop of his home overlooking his family’s land as Israeli bulldozers moved through the groves. He said, “We are unable to do anything. We cannot understand the intentions behind this uprooting. The occupation uprooted olive trees that have stood on our land since the time of our grandparents.” He added, “Just as the olive harvest season is approaching, three plots of land that had belonged to our family for generations were targeted. They uprooted 111 olive trees from one plot and another 215 from a second. Every single one of those trees has been removed.”
Tareq Ighbariya, spokesperson for the Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements in Jenin, said the destruction often goes beyond the areas named in Israeli military orders. He said, “Military orders may specify a certain area for tree uprooting or land clearing, but when they are carried out, the affected area is often much larger. In some cases, bulldozers enter agricultural land and begin clearing it without any prior military order.” He said similar operations had targeted agricultural land elsewhere in the Jenin governorate, where the commission had documented damage to around 300 dunams of farmland in recent months. He warned that the true extent of the destruction may be higher as assessments continue.
Harvest Season, Armed Pressure
The olive harvest is one of the most important agricultural seasons for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, providing a vital source of income for thousands of families. It’s also a social inheritance, with many groves passed down through generations. That’s what gets hit first when the machinery arrives. The uprooting of trees in Zububa comes as farmers across the occupied West Bank report increasing restrictions and attacks during the harvest season, including settler violence, vandalism, crop theft and difficulty accessing farmland, especially near Israeli settlements and military zones. For many communities, the harvest has become a period of economic importance and heightened uncertainty, with families fearing they may lose access to their land or face attacks while collecting their crops.
The pattern is familiar. Military orders, bulldozers, and a harvest season turned into a security problem for the people who depend on it. The land doesn’t move. The power does.
Rare Charges, Routine Violence
Israeli authorities on Thursday charged Israeli settler activist Yinon Levi with reckless homicide in the fatal shooting of Palestinian Awdah Hathleen in the West Bank last year, in a rare case in which an Israeli accused of nationalist violence against Palestinians has been indicted. Haaretz said Levi was charged with reckless homicide for the killing of Umm al-Kheir resident Awdah Hathaleen. The indictment also charged Levi with armed trespassing and malicious property damage. Haaretz said it was extremely rare for Israel to charge settlers with violence against Palestinians and that the charges against Levi marked the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that an Israeli had been indicted for the death of a Palestinian in the West Bank.
B’Tselem said that in that time, Israeli settlers and soldiers had killed at least 1,100 Palestinians in the territory. Haaretz also said an Israeli rights group found that only three percent of cases opened over Israelis’ violence against Palestinians led to conviction. So the legal system does what legal systems do best: it occasionally notices the blood, then mostly files it away.
The indictment came a year after Awdah Hathleen was killed in the West Bank. The charge may be rare. The structure behind it isn’t. Bulldozers clear land, armed settlers move through it, and the courts arrive late enough to preserve the appearance of process.