In Pictures

Gallery|Occupied West Bank

In Pictures: Pressing Olives in Ramallah

The olive oil industry, which supports thousands of families in occupied territories, is in decline.

Maher Rantisi is amongst the staff of the family-run Rantisi olive press in Ramallah(***)s old city.
By Rich Wiles
Published On 23 Oct 2014

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Following their displacement from al-Lydd in 1948, the Rantisi family purchased the historic olive press in Ramallah’s old city. Now fully modernised, it is one of only two surviving olive presses in Ramallah.

Nabeel Rantisi was born in to the olive oil business but says the industry has declined over the years:

“The Israelis have stolen so much of our land and now there are buildings everywhere too.”

More than 60% of the West Bank is classified as ‘Area C’ which is under full Israeli civil and military control. Construction of Israeli settlements and the Wall in Area C, along with other tools of the Israeli occupation, have colonised huge swathes of agricultural land and destroyed olive trees.

The Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ) estimates that 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted by Israel inside the occupied West Bank since 1967.

The restrictions placed on ‘Area C’ have pushed many villagers into the cities. This has consequently led to new constructions which have also necessitated the uprooting of trees.

Olive yield is low this year across Palestine. Some farmers are blaming last winter’s heavy snowfall while others believe the lack of rain has affected the harvest. Standing outside the Rantisi Olive Press, Munif Hassan puts it more simply: ‘Min Allah’ (It’s from God’).

The olive press is hundreds of years old but was bought by Yakoob Rantisi in 1950 after the family was displaced from al-Lydd during the Nakba.
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The Rantisi family estimate that in a good harvest as many as 8,000 tonnes of olives pass through the press during the 40 day season.
Nabeel Rantisi believes that the new generations of Palestinians don(***)t know how to work with olives in the same way as their ancestors did: "People want KFC, pizza and facebook now. They don(***)t know how to care for trees like they used to and the harvest suffers."
Some farmers wait at the press whilst their oil is being produced to oversee the process.
Oil is stored in a (***)tanaka(***). Each tanaka hold approximately 17 litres of olive oil.
 Munif Hassan believes he will be lucky if he gets (***)tanaktein(***) (two tanakas) of oil this year from his trees in al-Bireh: (***)Last year I got seven tanakaat from my 15 trees, but this year it(***)s a bad harvest."
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The olive oil industry supports 80,000 families in the oPt according to the Union of Agricultural Workers Committee (UAWC).
The olives must be washed and sorted before the extraction process begins to ensure the purest possible oil.
In 1995, the Rantisi family imported a mechanical olive press from Italy. They had previously been working with a traditional stone press that had been in the building since long before they arrived in Ramallah.
When the oil and water has been drawn from the fruit, the remaining matter is sent out the back of the press and collected in trailers. This waste must then be dried completely in the sun before it can be burnt as it retains some moisture.
The press is stacked high with sacks of freshly harvested olives. Each sack is carefully numbered and named to ensure each farmer receives the correct batch of oil.
Waiting farmers are keen to sample the first drops of their new oil.
Suleiman Jabareen has many olive trees alongside his house in Beitunia: "From each sack of olives I made a tanaka of oil last year but I will only get half as much this year. It(***)s not because of the snow [last winter], it(***)s because we haven(***)t had enough rain so the trees didn(***)t produce many olives and the olives don(***)t have much oil."