31st, October 2008
See more photos of the group day
Today we went to pick olives on fields located in a beautiful area in Bet Jala. We arrived, but found out that it could be problematic to enter. Israel has closed off the road and put up road blocks and a large gate at the entrance to the fields as they consider this to be the new border of Jerusalem. The farmer himself has suffered a lot from these obstacles. He has had to fight a lot to get the permit to enter his own fields, and it is very frustrating in his daily life to have to deal with the Israeli soldiers who now control the entrance.
When we wanted to go to the fields we were met by soldiers who had gathered there to stop us. They made us wait for an hour and a half while they were checking our passports and talking with the farmer as to know why we were there. This did not discourage the participants. Some decided to kill time by playing baseball, others were singing and a few started to pick garbage on the fields next to the house. "If we can not pick olives we can do something else useful", said Alan from USA. Patricia from Slovakia still thought it was a pity not to be able to enter. "It was a surprise for me to see the road blocks and the little "checkpoint", and to see that even the farmer has to pass through all of this every time he wants to enter his fields".
We were finally permitted to enter, and our bags were searched and they checked our passports a second time. We reached the farmers house, and here he told us more about his situation than what we had already witnessed. After the construction of the Apartheid Wall the farmer had to get a permit to enter his fields but this is not his only concern. With the construction of the continuing Wall in Beit Jala the possibility to move around in his area will be even more limited. He is also forbidden to expand his house, and this is very frustrating for him and his family. Even more frustrating is the fact that he cannot expand with a single room on his house while the two settlements Har Gilo and Gilo are constructing new houses in the same area all the time.
After hearing his story we started to pick olives. Each tree had a lot of olives, and while some participants stood on the ground picking, others went climbing in the trees to get all the olives. The farmer's family joined us as well, and the farmer himself talked and laughed with most of the participants and seemed happy for our presence. People were enjoying the olive picking and the weather was great as well.
The women in the family cooked lunch for us, and the food tasted especially good since we were all quite hungry. The lunch was followed by a quick break, and after this we started the work again.
People got more eager and brave in terms of reaching the olives on top of the trees, and we were content of the days work when we finally left the fields a couple of hours later. On the way back to the hotel we made a stop on top of a hill where Baha from JAI gave us a quick briefing about the planned construction of the continuation of the wall in Beit Jala. Like mentioned above this will create more difficulties for the farmer. Also olive trees will be cut down to have enough space for the wall, and this is a great loss.
The olive picking for today however was a good experience. Giselle from Chile had joined the group for a day. "This is my first time picking olives, and I have really enjoyed it".
