Israel uproots 400 olive trees in occupied West Bank as harvest season approaches... The trees are hundreds of years old- uprooting them not only destroys the trees, but also affects the livelihoods of Palestinian families that depend on them.

 September 24, 2026

Israeli forces uproot 400 olive trees belonging to Palestinians and destroy 31 dunams of land with heavy machinery in the town of Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, in the West Bank, Palestine on September 24, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260924-israel-uproots-400-olive-trees-in-occupied-west-bank-as-harvest-season-approaches/ 

 ... Since the beginning of 2026 through Sept. 22, Israel has issued 51 orders to remove trees and vegetation in the occupied West Bank, targeting 2,093 dunams of land, according to data from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

The uprooting operation comes as the olive harvest season approaches. Olive trees are a major source of income for thousands of Palestinian families. Bulldozing and uprooting operations cause losses to farmers and threaten their ability to access and cultivate their land.

Afrah Qadura, 65, from Beit Rima, told Anadolu Agency that residents learned of the military order two days ago and saw a map at the municipality building showing the areas targeted for the removal of olive trees.

He said landowners were given 12 hours to remove trees before the Israeli army would implement the order. “How can we remove trees planted by our fathers and uproot them with our own hands?” he asked rhetorically.

Qadura said the olive trees had been planted over decades, beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, as well as trees planted in the 1990s.

He said some of the trees uprooted Thursday had become highly productive for years, adding that olive trees are a primary source of livelihood for residents.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are preparing for the olive harvest season, which usually begins in October.

Thousands of Palestinians rely on olive trees and their crops as a source of income, alongside their connection to the land and agricultural heritage passed down through generations.

“We are proud of those trees like our children,” said Qadura, noting the years he and his father spent cultivating the land, caring for the trees and watering them.

He added that he used to bring water from a well to water the saplings and follow their growth during the years. “My father worked hard planting the trees, and we also worked hard caring for them.”

He said his family continued to tend, clean and care for the trees until they became part of their lives. Losing them in this way was, for him, like losing one of his children.

Qadura said uprooting the trees would not force his family to abandon their land, stressing that he and his family intend to replant the trees uprooted by the Israeli army.

“We will continue planting trees like my father did, and our children will continue after us,” he said, citing his family’s connection to the land and its cultivation across generations.

Abdul Rahman al-Rimawi, mayor of Bani Zeid al-Gharbia, which includes Beit Rima and other towns, told Anadolu Agency that everybody was surprised Thursday when Israeli army bulldozers began uprooting mature olive trees in the town in an area of 31 dunams.

Rimawi said the trees “are hundreds of years old,” and that uprooting them not only destroys the trees, but also affects the livelihoods of Palestinian families that depend on them.

​​​​​​​He said the operation comes as the olive harvest season approaches, describing it as part of “arbitrary Israeli practices against people, trees and stones.”

Rimawi said the residents of Beit Rima “are not isolated from this people” and what Palestinians are subjected to in terms of harassment, killings, displacement and the uprooting of olive trees.

He implored international institutions and relevant parties to work to halt the decision to uproot the trees, noting that there is ongoing communication with the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission to that end.

Rimawi said Israeli authorities had not, according to him, explained the grounds for implementing the decision, and that what is happening represents “Israeli practices against all members of the Palestinian people” in the occupied West Bank.

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UNESCO: Pastoralists are custodians of knowledge that sustains livelihoods, protects biodiversity and helps communities adapt to a changing climate

UNESCO

@UNESCO

 

Pastoralists are custodians of knowledge that sustains livelihoods, protects biodiversity and helps communities adapt to a changing climate. 

 

As #COP17 takes place in Mongolia, discover how  @UNESCO works with pastoralist communities to safeguard living knowledge and strengthen resilience. Read more: https://unes.co/rj83a5 

 

#ForThePeople

 

https://x.com/UNESCO/status/2089351549499887754 

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https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unescos-work-pastoralists-highlights-lessons-cop17 

Across the world — in the Andes, the Sahara, the Alps, and the Arctic tundra — communities have spent centuries mastering how to live with the land, not against it. This is pastoralism — raising livestock across environments too extreme for farming, guided by knowledge refined over generations. As COP17 on desertification opens in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (17–28 August 2026), UNESCO shows how pastoralist knowledge, as well as integrated solutions, can address soil degradation, drought, and climate change. 

Working with communities, not just for them

Continuously moving their herds across vast territories is a practice known as transhumance. Several UN agencies work with pastoralist communities on climate and land issues. UNESCO's mandate is distinctive as it encompasses protecting indigenous knowledge systems, safeguarding cultural heritage, and conserving biodiversity through its natural sciences work. Combined with a network of over 2,000 designated sites, this means UNESCO works directly with pastoralists in World Heritage properties, Biosphere Reserves, and Geoparks, where they have a role in land management not just recording their knowledge. 

Roughly 200 of those sites actively partner with pastoralist communities today. Safeguarding knowledge and putting it to use are two different steps, and UNESCO's role is to hold both. 

Knowledge at risk

Pastoralist knowledge survives in songs, recitation, and objects passed between generations, which means it depends entirely on that chain continuing. Among the Tuareg of the central Sahara, ecological and geographic knowledge is carried through poetry and encoded into jewellery, such as silver crosses marking desert locations, pendants mapping the night sky for navigation. If that chain of transmission breaks for even one generation, this precise, functional knowledge can be lost outright — unlike a written record. 

Documenting knowledge before it's lost

For six years, UNESCO supported a research programme with indigenous pastoralists across West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and East Africa, documenting what they know about the changing climate and how. Where conventional climate assessments rely on a handful of measurements that include sea surface temperature and wind speed, pastoralists offered thousands of distinct indicators for reading their environment. The case study of the Mbororo Fulani of Chad shows how transhumance sustains both livelihoods and biodiversity.

Safeguarding makes the practice durable

Protection under the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention works on the same logic as site partnerships: knowledge only stays usable if it survives. In 2023, UNESCO inscribed transhumance and the seasonal droving of livestock across the Mediterranean and the Alps on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, recognizing it as a living practice, not a relic.  

UNESCO connects what pastoralist communities know with what policymakers need: safeguarding knowledge so it survives, and giving communities a role in applying it. As COP17 turns to desertification, pastoralism shows both steps working. 

 https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unescos-work-pastoralists-highlights-lessons-cop17

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From 400 hives to 35: the Gaza beekeeper refusing to let war end his life’s work - Ibrahim al-Dabba continues to care for his colonies despite losing his home and most of his hives and equipment. Story by Lina Abu Zayed, photographs by Omar Ashtawy

Ibrahim Naji al-Dabba, 49, (in green) working with his sons. He was displaced from the Shuja’iyya area, east of Gaza City to Tel al- to the south

    "Beekeeping... is our life, our livelihood, and our future."  

The Guardian picture essay 

Each morning, Ibrahim Naji al-Dabba climbs to the roof of a damaged residential tower in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, where rows of beehives sit surrounded by shattered concrete and the scars of war. The rooftop is far from an ideal place for beekeeping, but for the 49-year-old father of seven, it is the only place where he can continue the profession that has sustained his family for decades.

Before the war, al-Dabba owned more than 400 beehives spread across eastern Gaza. His apiaries, equipment, storage facilities, and four-wheel-drive vehicle allowed him to manage a thriving beekeeping business that supported his family. Today, almost everything he built over years of work has disappeared.

“Beekeeping is not just a business,” he says. “It is my family’s only source of income. It is our life, our livelihood, and our future.”

Al-Dabba, who also serves as president of the Gaza Beekeepers’ cooperative society, says beekeeping became a passion long before it became a profession. Over the years, he specialised in producing honey, breeding queen bees, and developing bee strains adapted to Gaza’s climate. Before the war, Gaza’s beekeeping sector had continued to grow despite years of blockade, with hundreds of beekeepers producing honey and supporting local agriculture through pollination.

That changed after the war erupted.

Unable to reach his apiaries because of bombardment and displacement, al-Dabba watched his life’s work vanish. He lost his home, more than 400 beehives, honey-processing equipment, storage facilities, and nearly all the tools required for his trade... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jul/29/gaza-beekeeper-refusing-to-let-war-end-lifes-work

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