(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121030-olives-salem-1.photoblog600.jpg)Alaa Badarneh / EPAPalestinian farmers harvest olive trees on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Salem, near the Jewish settlement of Elone Moreh, on Oct. 12.By Lawahez Jabari, NBC NewsSALEH, West Bank -- Every fall, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians take to the fields to participate in the annual olive harvest, a celebrated national event. Children take time off school and adults skip work to rise at sunrise and walk through the groves echoing with the sound of sticks striking olive branches.
Not only is the olive tree an important symbol of Palestinian identity and culture, the olive oil sector is important to the Palestinian economy and supports around 80,000 families. But the centuries-old tradition is under threat.
“There have been cases of arson and tree uprooting by the settlers,” Hamdan Hamdan, who has farmed land in the village of Saleh, a West Bank community with a population of 6,000, told NBC News. “Usually settlers stop us from accessing the trees, just this morning they scared off farmers who crossed beyond the bypass road to their fields.”
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