Burin is a village in the Holy Land, situated about halfway between Nazareth and Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph may well have passed nearby on their journey 2,000 years ago to Joseph’s hometown to complete the census ordered by Augustus Caesar.

Doha Musa is an olive farmer who lives in Burin. Doha, speaking through her daughter Muna, says olives are the most important crop they have.

“We harvest the olives each October, and press them for olive oil, making soap from what’s left from the pressing. Oil is our main source of income. Olives are eaten too.”

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Doha farms other crops.

“We also plant wheat, vegetables and thyme.”

Land is fertile, but the political situation makes day-to-day activity difficult. Olives are harvested by hand, with people working together, much like saving turf in Ireland. It takes three hours to pick the fruit from one olive tree, and Doha has over 500.

The West Bank, along with Gaza, forms Palestine, a country now recognised by Ireland. Smaller than Co Galway, the West Bank is home to over 3.5m Palestinians and 700,000 Israeli settlers. The Palestinian Authority is the governing body in the West Bank, but in reality, the Israeli Army is in charge of daily life.

Doha needs a permit to get to her fields. In recent years, permits have become increasingly difficult to obtain, according to Stella Carroll. Stella is from Sligo, and for many years has volunteered as a human rights witness.

Stella accompanies Doha and her neighbours to her fields to help them negotiate the security cordon that is their daily reality. “There are as many as seven different checkpoints in the area, and they open and close at random,” she explains.

Founded

“The farmers use WhatsApp groups to know which route might be open at any given time.”

Stella is part of the Ecumenical Programme in Palestine, founded by the World Council of Churches. “I have worked with many Israeli people, rabbis and others, who strived for justice and peace. But since October 7, it’s almost impossible to be a peace activist in Israel.”

On 7 October 2023, Hamas, the ruling body in Gaza, attacked and killed over 1,200 Israeli people. Israel invaded Gaza in response, with over 70,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza over the last two years.

The West Bank is not in open conflict, but there have been 69 new Israeli settlements this year, all illegal under international law, according to Stella.

Doha explains the difficulty in getting to the fields: “We are not able to reach our fields in the mountains – we would wait for the Israeli government permit to reach our lands, but we cannot get any permits.

“We found that even though we had permits, we were prevented from harvesting the lowlands, only five minutes from home. We used to go to the fields at 5am in darkness, leaving at 7am before the settlers would arrive.”

Many olive trees, some of which are centuries old, have been uprooted, burned or have their limbs cut off.

“The olive tree is a witness to all that has happened in our country since 1948,” says Doha.