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KUFR QADDUM, West Bank (AFP) – Set by a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, this Palestinian village would normally be buzzing with olive pickers at this time of year, were it not for the constant harassment by their neighbours.

“We try to sneak in when they're not around, but one will invariably pop up and threaten us,” says 29-year-old Alia as she brushes over the branches of an olive tree with a plastic rake to let her bounty fall on large plastic sheet.

“The other day armed settlers stole our car so we have to walk with the kids after school to the olive grove. Time is pressing, we have 80 trees to harvest,” she says.

And pointing to Israeli troops posted just a few yards away, at the entrance of Qaddumin settlement, she remarks: “It's not like they are going to protect us. They cover up for the settlers' wrongdoings.”

Abdelnasser Aqel, who sits on the village local council, says this year's harvest was planned in coordination with the army.

“They sat down with us and divided the area into eight sections, saying they would provide us with protection from the settlers for one day in each section,” he says, with a hint a cynicism.

“There are about 250 trees in each section, we need a month at least to pick our olives.”

He says the army told the council that villagers could carry on harvesting their land afterwards “but at our own risk.”

“One soldier put it very simply for me: settlers don't like to see your faces when they look outside their windows,” says Aqel.

Israeli army spokesman Jacob Dalal told AFP that “by order of the Central Command, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will do everything to facilitate olive picking in coordination with local councils this year.”

“In areas of friction, soldiers provide protection in function of the farmers' needs, based on dialogue. Nothing is done arbitrarily. They can ask for more days and will get them,” he added.

Aqel says 3,000 dunums (300 hectares, 740 acres) are completely off-limits since they lie too close to Qaddumim.

Other villagers complain that settlers set their trees on fire.

Alia's sister, 32-year-old Mirvat, says that olive picking has become a total headache: “It's difficult to harvest in the first place; we can't market the oil because of the internal closures of the West Bank, and the price has gone down from 25 shekels (5.5 dollars) a liter to nine shekels (two dollars).”

With the men of Kufr Qaddum village no longer allowed to cross into Israel for work, the 4,000 villagers have a hard time making ends meet.

Jean-Luc Siblot of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) acknowledges the West Bank farmers' difficulties, especially during the olive picking season, which takes place every other year.

“Farmers often have a hard time reaching their fields, producing the oil and selling it because of the Israel's security barrier (along the West Bank), checkpoints, curfews or settlers,” he says.

WFP helps some 2,600 farmers overcome marketing problems by buying their oil production, worth 1.3 million dollars, and redistributing it free of charge to the needy in other parts of the West Bank and Gaza.

Forty-five percent of Palestinian agricultural land is planted with olive trees, with a greater concentration on the northern West Bank with its plentiful water supply.

The Palestinian agriculture ministry estimates that one million olive trees have been uprooted, mainly for Israel's construction of the West Bank barrier, leaving around nine million trees standing.