Every year, October marks the onset of olive harvesting in Palestine. The olive industry is the sole breadwinner for more than 100,000 Palestinians, of whom over 15 percent are women. For a community whose lifeline is agriculture—especially the olive industry—and for whom olives are ubiquitous in their culinary culture, the harvest is nothing short of a festive season. Palestinian families gather and picnic around the olive groves to pick the stone fruit.  However, every year, this joyous season is clouded by the imminent danger of attacks from Israeli settlers, often aided by the Israeli military. In 2023, the UN documented 113 harvest-related acts of violence where Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and damaged over 2000 olive trees. The iconic image of an elderly Palestinian farmer Mahfodah Shtayyeh, crying and hugging her olive tree as Israeli settlers attacked captures both the struggle and resistance of the Palestinian farmer and her trees….

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