Residents move crops under threat as violence and land seizures intensify in occupied West Bank
RAMALLAH: Palestinian farmers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, rushed to harvest and remove wheat from their fields this week amid repeated attacks by illegal Israeli settlers who residents say have tried to burn crops and block access to farmland.
Under intense summer heat, dozens of residents worked across the eastern plain of Sinjil to collect wheat and transport it quickly into the town before settlers could reach the area. What was once a normal harvest season has turned into an urgent effort to protect crops from destruction.
Residents say settlers have repeatedly targeted Sinjil and surrounding farmland in recent months, forcing farmers to alter how they work and sharply increasing the cost of harvesting. Instead of threshing wheat on-site as they normally would, farmers are now using tractors and trucks to move the crop immediately to safer areas inside the town.
Farmers say attacks aim to force them off their land
Anti-settlement activist Ayed Ghafri said farmers have faced constant threats, including crop vandalism and repeated attempts to set wheat fields on fire. He said residents had mobilised to help because leaving the harvest in the fields would expose it to further attacks.
Farmer Ashraf Alwan said he and other landowners were attacked last week while trying to harvest about 300 dunums of wheat. He added that settlers, under army protection, forced them to leave before they returned with support from local residents.
Harvest becomes symbol of survival and resistance
Farmers said the extra transport, harvesting and threshing costs have cut deeply into already limited returns. However, they stressed that staying on the land is no longer about profit.
“This is about steadfastness and holding on to the land,” one farmer said, explaining that settlers had tried several times to burn or steal crops.
Sinjil municipality says the town has already lost about half of its 16,000 dunums of land to settlement expansion and surrounding outposts. Human rights groups have also warned of a broader rise in settler violence and forced displacement across the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
