‘Rooted in this land until death’: A Palestinian family’s olive harvest

Six-year-old Nasser Tanatra is scared of the rock-strewn hilltop where he used to play and pick flowers near his family home.

The boisterous child, the youngest of seven siblings, used to dash to the top of Jabal al-Ras with his 10-year-old sister Urood to gather wild sage and zaatar.

But in mid-September, about 20 Israeli settlers, protected by soldiers, erected tents and began living on the hilltop, about 50 metres (164ft) from the family’s two-storey home.

Ever since, they have attacked and harassed the Tanatras and their neighbours in the Palestinian village of Umm Safa. At night the settlers fire bullets into the air and release aggressive dogs to roam outside villagers’ homes. From above, they flash bright lights onto the houses, blare music and sing loudly.

But the worst incident for the Tanatras occurred soon after the new settlers arrived.

The family was watching the evening news when soldiers launched tear gas and settlers shot live bullets towards their home. Although nobody was injured, during the more than hour-long attack, a terrified Nasser slipped away from his family in panic and darted outside. He then ran under gunfire to his grandmother’s house 100 metres (328ft) away. He has been traumatised ever since.

“He says, ‘Mama, I am scared to leave the house. I am scared to sleep. I am not hungry. I am scared to go outside. I am scared to go to school,’” explained Nasser’s mother, Manal Tanatra, 40, with a frown, as she helped a neighbour gather olives in late October.

“This isn’t a life. It isn’t. Our house, our land, we are surrounded and strangled and attacked, and even to harvest our olives is a danger.”

The annual olive harvest season in October and November is a time when Umm Safa’s families come together to pick olives from the same trees their ancestors cultivated. But the arrival of the outpost and the increasing settler violence have made harvesting an activity fraught with danger, and the villagers can never be sure how a day in the groves will unfold.

In past seasons, Nasser accompanied Manal to the groves to play. Since the attack, he has barely left home.

‘During the day, we are strong’

Umm Safa, a village of several hundred people about 12km (7.5 miles) north of Ramallah, sits on a hillside above terraces of olive trees.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza started in October 2023, the villagers, like other Palestinians across Area C – the 60 percent of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli military control – have endured escalating restrictions from the Israeli military and attacks from settlers.

In normal times, the Tanatra family home is alive with the conversations and laughter of Nasser and his six older sisters, aged between 10 and 20. The family would play games together or, on special occasions, grill chicken or kebab outside.