31st, October 2008
See more photos of the group day
Today we had our first and last full day of olive picking. The olive picking took place in Nahallin, a village southwest of Bethlehem. We left the ATG right after eight and left for the village.
When you are in the valley down from the village, minding your own business, you look up on the other side and there you see one of the major settlements in the area, Betar Illit. This settlement is home to more than 25,000 Israeli settlers that are making olive harvest and life in general difficult for the people in Nahaliin and nearby villages. Nahallin is located inside the Gush Etzion settlement block. The people of Nahallin face house demolition orders, settlers attacking them and land confiscating. Betar Lillit is in fact built on the land of Nahallin.
The farmers and their families were with us picking olives and people spent a lot of time speaking to the people from the village. Other Palestinians and internationals also accompanied us in today's olive harvest. People were excited about connecting with people and working with them on their land. Joop said; "It is nice to work with your hands, you can see the progress, - its touchable. I really like to socialize with people while picking olives! In addition, I actually saw a turtle!"
We divided ourselves among different olive fields, and the group members were spread all over the area. This was a good experience as people got to interact better with the farmers and their families.
As Joop came back from the fields from lunch he said; "You know, the settlers release their sewage here! Right here in the fields! And it smells!"
We spent the day picking olives and talking to our new friends from Nahallin. The day was quite relaxing and people really enjoyed their time.
Catherine from the USA shared some of her thoughts of her engagement on Palestine; "someone has to care about Palestine, we cannot all care about the same things. I care about Palestine, and I hope that someone also cares about my backyard."
