While the cameras of the world are fixed on the devastation in Gaza and the escalation in Lebanon, a different kind of fire is consuming the West Bank. It is not the fire of airstrikes, but the fire of arson – the West Bank is burning. We are currently in the peak of the olive harvest season—a time that has culturally and economically defined Palestinian life for centuries. But in 2025, the harvest has become a war zone. Illegal settlers, emboldened by the Israeli state’s “total war” footing and the world’s distraction, have launched a scorched-earth campaign.
They are not just attacking people; they are burning the land itself. And in doing so, they are torching the very last remnants of international law.
The “Price Tag” of Existence
Reports from the UN and local human rights groups confirm a “skyrocketing” surge in settler violence this November. The tactic is simple: if Palestinians attempt to harvest their olives, they are attacked with clubs and live fire. If they stay away out of fear, settlers move in and set the groves ablaze.
These are not random acts of vandalism. They are calculated acts of economic erasure. An olive tree takes decades, sometimes centuries, to grow. Burning it is an attempt to sever the Palestinian connection to the land permanently. It is a message: “You have no future here.”
The New Phenomenon: Stealing the Trees and the Harvest
It is not enough to burn the land; now, they are stealing it piece by piece. This season has seen a disturbing rise in a new, organized form of theft.
1. The Theft of the Harvest: In villages across Nablus and Ramallah, farmers are reporting a horrific new reality. After being blocked from their lands by the military for “security reasons” for weeks, they finally gain access only to find their trees stripped bare. Settlers, under the protection of the IDF, are entering Palestinian groves at night, harvesting the olives using industrial equipment, and stealing the entire crop. A year of labor is stolen in a single night, leaving the farmer with nothing but broken branches.
2. The Theft of History (Uprooting): Worse still is the theft of the trees themselves. There are documented cases of ancient, Roman-era olive trees—some over 1,000 years old—being uprooted by heavy machinery. Where do they go? They often reappear days later inside the manicured roundabouts and gardens of the very settlements that stole them, used as “decoration” to invent a history that does not exist. They are not just stealing wood; they are stealing the roots of the land to transplant a false narrative.
The Violation of International Law
Let’s be clear: these actions are not just “clashes.” They are flagrant violations of specific international statutes that the “civilized world” claims to uphold.
- The Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 53): This article explicitly prohibits the destruction of real or personal property belonging to individuals or the state by the Occupying Power. By protecting (and often assisting) settlers as they burn groves, the Israeli state is complicit in this violation.
- Article 49: The establishment of settlements itself is a violation of Article 49, which forbids an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. The violence we see today is the direct, violent fruit of this illegal planting.
- The ICJ Ruling: The International Court of Justice has already ruled that the occupation is unlawful. Yet, instead of retreating, the settlement enterprise has weaponized the current chaos to expand its territory through fire and terror.
Impunity as Policy
The most damning aspect of this tragedy is the impunity. When a Palestinian throws a stone, they face military court and years in prison. When a settler burns an entire farm or shoots a farmer in broad daylight, they are rarely charged, let alone convicted.
In the West Bank, the law is not blind; it is selective. It protects the arsonist and imprisons the firefighter.
As Pakistanis, and as global citizens, we must not let the smoke over Gaza obscure the fires in the West Bank. The burning of olive trees is not collateral damage. It is a war crime, happening in plain sight, while the world refuses to blink.
West Bank: Israeli settlers burn olive trees
This video is relevant because it documents the recent surge in settler violence targeting Palestinian olive groves in the West Bank, visually confirming the destruction discussed in the blog post.