In the bustling markets of Jerusalem’s Old City, crates of fruit once reflected the richness of a land still whole—before it was fragmented by Israeli occupation. For generations, fruits and produce harvested from Palestinian hills and plains flowed freely into the city’s markets, connecting urban life with the rural heartlands of Palestine. The stalls came alive with colors that followed the rhythm of the seasons: in summer, ruby-red watermelons and sweet figs arrived from village fields; fall brought dusty green olives and prickly pears; winter filled the markets with bright Jaffa oranges and citrus; while spring carried the pungent scents of fresh herbs such as za’atar, mint, and sage.
Before the fruit’s arrival into Jerusalem markets, its cultivation was accompanied by rich cultural and spiritual traditions. Planting and harvest seasons were marked with communal rituals: prayers for rain, storytelling, and traditional dancing and food sharing. Workers celebrated labor by singing folklore songs about love, struggle, and the land, as they picked olives or gathered wheat. Agricultural cycles aligned with religious feasts and village festivals, and communities came together during harvests.1
Palestinian women played a key role in cultivation. Under Ottoman rule, rural women practiced subsistence farming and animal husbandry, and some held property or land rights through court systems, though inheritance laws favored men.2 Women also contributed to olive oil and soap production. During the British Mandate and later under Israeli rule, a gendered division of labor intensified, with women taking on more agricultural responsibilities as men sought work elsewhere, often without land rights or access to resources. Although women have made up a third or more of the Palestinian agricultural labor force in recent years, data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in 2010 shows that only about 7.2 percent of individual agricultural holdings were registered to women, highlighting a significant gender gap in land ownership.3
The Shifting Landscape of Palestinian Agriculture
Agriculture in Jerusalem and across the region has long been shaped and affected by political struggles. For centuries, communal land systems like musha’a governed the highlands where villages shared and rotated plots seasonally. During the 19th century, wheat and barley dominated cultivation, covering 75 percent of farmland and consumed mostly by farmers themselves. Olives were widely grown on poorer highland soils for both household use and trade. Grapes thrived around Hebron, and by the late 19th century, citrus production expanded along the Mediterranean, becoming a key export.
Ottoman efforts to dismantle this collective system began with the 1858 Land Code and intensified as foreign ownership was legalized in 1876. These reforms were designed to centralize control and increase taxes, and they laid the groundwork for large-scale land sales.4 Backed by foreign capital and Zionist institutions, Jewish settlers began acquiring land in the late 19th century, especially in the coastal plains. As a result, Palestinian farmers, many practicing subsistence agriculture, faced growing dispossession. British Mandate policies continued the erosion of communal rights, and by 1948, the Nakba had displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, dispossessing most farmers of their lands. The value of Palestinian agricultural land lost to Israelis was estimated in 1996 at between 2.2 and 2.6 billion dollars (1993 USD), roughly $5 billion in 2023.5 Eighty percent of the land Israel claimed was brought into cultivation after the 1948 War was agricultural land that belonged to and had been farmed by the Palestinians before their forced displacement.6
Since then, occupation, settlement expansion, and restrictions on land, water, and movement have further impacted Palestinian agriculture. As of 2002, Israel has begun construction on a Separation Wall between Israel and the West Bank that runs through Jerusalem. This plan involved the uprooting of over 100,000 trees and the destruction of over 30 km of water networks. Moreover, the wall has alienated over 12,200 hectares of land from its owners, in the process separating 51 communities from their agricultural land.7 Yet despite the barriers, Palestinians continue to tend their orchards, harvest their fields, save seeds, and pass down farming traditions, forever weaving an unbroken thread between a people and a place.
These historical and recent photographs do more than document produce; they reflect a life sustained by the land and people whose identity is intimately tied to the fruit it bears. The olive, with its deep roots and enduring presence, symbolizes belonging and peace. The Jaffa citrus, once renowned in markets around the world, tells of Palestinian agricultural skill and global reach. Even the watermelon—its red flesh and green rind—became a quiet form of resistance, echoing and symbolizing the colors of the formerly banned Palestinian flag.