Amid the grapevines that after supplied a gradual revenue for her household, 56-year-old Palestinian farmer Theeba al-Sabaa spends a lot of her day guarding her residence and farmland within the occupied West Financial institution from settlers.
From nightfall until daybreak, she works on her land within the city of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, recognized by locals as “Jabal Sabaa”.
Theeba is engaged in a each day battle in opposition to the encroaching settler outposts which have emerged among the many rolling hills that encompass her, and which block entry to sections of her land.
“By God, the land has taught me endurance, and to cling to my proper, for so long as I’ve a proper, I have to take it and by no means let it go,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
“I’ll by no means go away it as a result of I labored arduous on it, I toil and sweat on it, so I cannot go away my toil and sweat, or the toil of my youngsters and my husband, to go to another person.”
Weaponising livestock
Since mid-2024, when settlers established new outposts on the close by hills, each one in every of Theeba’s strikes has been monitored.
Settlers often strategy the perimeter of her residence and intentionally launch livestock into the cultivated fields.
“They enter with their sheep into our land after we plow and repair it, grazing in it, trampling the crops, and stomping on them with their sheep, leaving nothing,” Theeba stated.
“As quickly as they really feel any motion or anybody coming into the land, you discover them attacking us instantly.”
This intimidation extends to the adjoining fields, the place 59-year-old Anwar Sabarneh lives along with his prolonged household of seven brothers.
Because of the repeated settler violations, two of his brothers have been compelled to desert their land.
Sabarneh, who helps a household of 14, owns a number of dunams of vineyards situated simply 300 metres (980 ft) from his residence. With aggressive settlers round, reaching them has develop into a harmful ordeal.
Navy complicity
Sabarneh stated that the Israeli military even calls for permits from Palestinians to work on their very own land.
“The military got here with the settlers to ask me for a allow so I can work in my residence, in entrance of my home’s door, and on my land the place I’m the rightful proprietor,” Sabarneh stated.
Farmers are additionally barred from constructing something on their land. Sabarneh’s sheep have additionally been locked in a barn for over eight months as a result of risks posed by settlers.
“In the event that they see me taking the sheep out, the settlers chase me, kidnap them, and steal them,” he stated.
When Sabarneh’s youngsters have tried to retrieve their stolen sheep, Israeli troopers have arrested and overwhelmed them.
A compelled exodus
Repeated pogroms by settlers in opposition to Palestinian farmers replicate a broader technique focusing on agriculture throughout the southern West Financial institution.
Settlers and the Israeli troops carried out 11,074 assaults within the West Financial institution throughout the first half of 2026, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Fee. This contains 3,488 carried out by settlers.
Hasan Breijieh, a settlement affairs skilled and director on the fee, instructed Al Jazeera that steady settlement expansionism, alongside restrictions on Palestinian motion, are the first causes that so many Palestinians have been compelled to flee their farms.
“Navy gates erected on the entrances of Palestinian communities have tightened management over… entry to their orchards and vineyards,” he stated.
Bypass roads, constructed by Israel, have additionally hindered “connectivity between Palestinian communities”, Breijieh stated.
Below such restrictions, Palestinian farmers have confronted a fourth consecutive season with out with the ability to harvest olives, grapes, or guava. Their lands have been “neither plowed nor pruned”, and have been forcibly deserted.
Within the face of such oppression, Palestinian ladies like Theeba al-Sabaa have continued to play a pivotal function in defending their land, significantly when males have been killed or detained by Israeli forces.
“They proceed to take care of their management function in preserving the household’s agricultural legacy as we speak,” Breijieh stated. “This land was traditionally the first supply of livelihood for households, and a Palestinian can not go away it voluntarily, irrespective of the sacrifices.”
He recalled his personal grandfather, who went to his fields to bid farewell earlier than dying. “Goodbye, winery,” he stated to his land.
