Sarah’s Olive Grove

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The village of Taybe lies about 10 kilometres inside the West Bank. Stand at the Boys’ School at the edge of the village and look towards the border and what do you see? 20 metres ahead and stretching as far as the eye can see are head - high rolls of razor wire. Beyond that is a ten-foot electric fence, beyond that is a military road patrolled by Israeli army jeeps, and beyond that still is another fence and more razor wire. Look over these fortications and you can glimpse on the other side in what is now ‘Israei territory’ the goalposts of the school football pitch rising forlornly from the now-abandoned playground, and in the distance olive trees and more confiscated village land rising up the now unreachable hillside. Next to the school lies a small grove of olive trees - they belong to a 75 year old Palestinian woman called Sarah. Sarah was born and spent her early childhood in a village near Megiddo in what is now Israel. She and her family were driven from their homes in 1948 and became refugees in a camp at Jenin. She later moved with her husband to this piece of family land at Taybe. Her husband died, most of the land was confiscated and now lies on the other side of the security fence. She ekes out a living from her few remaining olive trees and by keeping a few animals. Some of the villagers are even worse off. Their trees lie the other side of the fence and in spite of their permits which allow them to cross the fence to their trees the Israeli Army this year has not opened the gate to allow them through. As we stood with them, Israeli army jeeps sped by ignoring us. We had arrived at Taybe at 7am one morning - the sun was already hot, and we found Sarah in her olive grove spreading blankets under the trees to begin harvesting her olives. This is very hard work, especially for a woman of 75 working alone. It would take her 2 days to strip one tree of its fruit, and she was too frightened of the Israeli army to approach the trees closer to the separation barrier, so we set to and helped. With 10 young(ish) people working flat out for several hours we managed to harvest all her olives which were sorted into plastic bags for oil making and eating. We experienced first hand the harsh realities of olive harvesting - working on rough ground in blazing heat, climbing through the branches to reach the highest fruit. As we left, we met the headteacher of the school - the Israelis had threatened his school with demolition unless he boarded up the windows facing the fence to prevent the soldiers being seen by the schoolchildren. He told us that the village was now expecting demolition orders on houses along that whole swathe of land bordering the fence. Sarah’s house and olive grove may become just a pile of rubble and bulldozed wasteland. This entry is filed under 2007, Tubas Region - Olive Harvest, Tubas Region - House Demolitions, October 2007 Delegation.