GENEVA: UN rights experts on Monday called on Israel to protect Palestinian farmers in the West Bank as settler attacks worsen with the annual olive harvest.
“Palestinian farmers must be protected and able to access their land safely. Yet, year after year, the violence, destruction and restrictions intensify,” the experts said in a statement.
“The olive harvest should be a time when farmers can enjoy, in safety and dignity, the food and livelihoods their nature and land provide, not another season of fear, loss, violence and destruction.”
The experts urged Israel to ensure that is forces protect Palestinian farmers from settler attacks and refrain from interference with their access to land. They also urged the international community to “exercise maximum pressure to protect Palestinian civilians.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. About 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, alongside three million Palestinians.
Violence is surging in the territory ahead of Israel’s bitterly fought October 27 elections. The vote coincides with Palestinians’ annual olive harvest which has been repeatedly disrupted by Israeli settlers as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to shore up his pro-settlement right-wing base.
According to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, 178 settler attacks related to the 2025 olive harvest were recorded in the West Bank, affecting 88 Palestinian communities.
More than 6,000 trees and saplings were “vandalized,” it said — nearly double the number in 2024 and the highest figure in six years.
“The olive harvest is an essential source of food, income and livelihood for thousands of Palestinian families,” the UN experts said.
“Olive trees take years to mature and can sustain families for generations. Their destruction deprives families of far more than a single harvest: it undermines local food systems, cultural practices and ways of life, as well as the right to food and the food sovereignty of Palestinian communities.”
The seven signatories to the statement include Sofia Monsalve Suarez, special rapporteur on the right to food; and Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council. They do not speak for the United Nations itself.