Elisha Yered, an Israeli settler with government backing who killed a Palestinian three years ago, has announced the opening of an olive mill in the illegal settlement of Itamar Hills in the occupied West Bank, styled after traditional Palestinian olive press designs, during the olive harvest season.

It is a fitting symbol of what is happening across the occupied West Bank this year: Palestinian farmers who tended their olive trees all year are being denied the harvest.

Israeli settlers, under full protection of occupation forces, stormed Palestinian groves two geeks before the official season began and stripped the trees bare.
In other areas, settlers took a more permanent approach, uprooting thousands of olive trees to prevent Palestinians from ever harvesting them again.

The olive tree is not just a crop in Palestine. It is identity, inheritance, and livelihood, passed from one generation to the next. This year, as in recent years, Israeli settlers did not only steal the olives. They stole the season.