Amira Hass Continuous invasions by settlers spoil the joy of Palestinians’ olive harvest
Abed el-Karim and Nidal Zamel of the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus, could be considered fortunate: Civil Administration officials ordered settlers who were squatting on their land to leave. About a week ago, they told me what such good fortune looks like, near a mound of earth blocking the old road to their orchards. On October 6, Abed and Nidal, cousins, went outside accompanied by about 50 relatives. Escorted by Israeli troops, they were on their way to harvest olives on roughly 200 dunams (49 acres) of land owned by the extended family. The settlement of Elon Moreh, on a hilltop to the northeast, dominates the view over about half of Deir al-Hatab’s 12,000 dunams, including the Zamels’ land. Because of the settleme