Irish activists are among those helping Palestinian farmers with this year's crucial olive harvest, writes Angela Long.
Irish people helping Palestinian farmers to harvest their autumn olive crop in the West Bank are getting caught up in increasingly bitter clashes between farmers and Israeli military and settlers.
Over the weekend Irishman Mr Robbie Kelly (33) suffered bruised ribs and had seven stitches to his left ear when a group of foreigners describing themselves as peace monitors became involved in a violent clash with Israeli settlers near the village of Yanoun, outside Nablus. The settlers reacted with frenzy when they heard of the suicide bombing which killed three Israelis at Ariel.
Earlier last week, a Dublin man suffered head injuries after a clash with the military outside another West Bank village.
Mid-October to mid-November is when the olives are harvested. For many Palestinians, victims of the virtual dismemberment of their economy which has occurred since the latest intifada began two years ago, the olive crop is about all they have left to bring money into the home.
Unemployment has gone from 50 to 70 per cent among Palestinian living in what are called the Occupied Territories. Harvesting the olives successfully is of paramount importance. To assist in the effort, peace activists from around the world have gone to Palestinian areas to help pick the crop, and to keep undesirable Israeli involvement at bay. A number of Irish people are among the group, one of whom was wounded this week in an incident with Israeli soldiers and military police.
Mr Ray O'Reilly (62), a former telecommunications manager from Dublin, received over a dozen stitches to wounds on his head after he fell when retreating from a "heated stand-off" with Israeli authorities.
However, the gashes ("the bone was exposed on my skull") and bruises have not dampened his rage at what he sees around the small village of Jaayous, near Kalkilya, west of Nablus, a town which has been subject to swingeing curfews this year. "The Israelis are trying to drive out and steal their [local Palestinians'] land," he said. "They are cruel bastards. But they were terrified on Sunday when they thought they had shot me. Anything happening to an international monitor scares the hell out of them because they know there would be a diplomatic incident. That is why we are here."
Mr O'Reilly says he wasn't hit by a bullet, but some came so close to his head that he had to duck, stumbled and fell.
As he spoke, he was walking down towards olive fields outside Jaaiyus, escorting a farmer who he described as "terrified" by the actions of a construction company and soldiers trespassing on his land. "They say it is Israeli land." When Mr O'Reilly was hurt, he and his colleagues were protesting at the construction of a fence right across olive fields. The Israelis, construction workers, their security staff, soldiers and military police, claimed the fence was being built along the "green line" agreed internationally after the 1967 war as the dividing line between Palestinian and Israeli territory. But local Palestinians said the fence was being built well inside the line, on their land, and obstructed olive harvesting in those fields. The new boundary cuts off access to some 30 artesian wells, the villagers added. Rights to water are the subject of a United Nations resolution, 465, dating back to 1980, which calls for a just share-out of this vital resource.
The fence is a subsidiary of a project to build a great wall separating Israeli and Palestinian communities. The wall was approved by the Israeli cabinet earlier this year, and is expected to dwarf the dimensions of the Berlin Wall if and when it is completed.
The olive monitors stress there are two sides to the story, and that Israel has a duty to protect its citizens. But their concern is that Palestinians also enjoy simple human rights, such as the right to make a living. There have also been reported incidents of some Israeli settlers obstructing harvesting because they claim the farmers are part of the threat to their safety.
For its part, the Israelis say Palestinian gunmen use olive groves in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as camouflage.
Irish monitor Mr Mike McGrath (32) from Tipperary, an artist, is keen to emphasise the olive harvest-helpers are simply helping people who need it. "The armed forces are interested in avoiding any sort of difficulties with the internationals, which would be a PR disaster," he says.
"We held them [the wall builders] off for two days last week. That was a small triumph. It was obvious that they were not sure whether or not to proceed, but in the end they must have got the go-ahead and it is now a fairly charged situation."
A number of Jaayous landowners have lodged writs with the Israeli High Court seeking judicial intervention in what they say is both an encroachment on their land, and violation of an internationally-agreed border. The locals fear that a result will not come quickly enough to save their water, and their harvest.
Why are the Irish people there? "Because this is grand theft at gunpoint," said Mr McGrath, while Mr O'Reilly said, "Any people who are getting it in the neck deserve our help. Justice is my long-term interest."