Food sovereignty as resistance in Palestine

By Vittoria Silva Paz Barreto
From MST’s website

It is difficult to imagine the existence of agriculture and food production in Gaza, where there is no security, no peace, and even less arable land. After twenty months of atrocities and mass destruction of infrastructure, the death toll from Israel’s genocide on Gaza is over 56,000, with hundreds of thousands of injured, and the mass displacement of the majority of the population. The existence of arable land, untouched by Israel’s devastating bombing campaign, or even the possibility to have freedom to move and tend to the land in Gaza, are distant dreams. In the West Bank, however, agriculture is still a reality.

As of October 2024, half a million Jewish settlers lived in the occupied West Bank – a number that continues to grow especially since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocide on Gaza.

The level of violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is also growing with the intensification of land annexations, the increase of armed settlers, and the killing of Palestinians. And on top of that the Israeli government offers subsidies to Jewish families from other parts of the world (especially from the US and Europe) who, under the belief of an ancestral right to this long-inhabited land, come to the region. The number of settlements has also increased since the beginning of the Netanyahu government.

Agriculture is resistance to colonially-imposed hunger

In Palestine, agriculture is a historical form of resistance. While we see countless reports these days about hunger being used as a weapon of war, about children being killed in food lines and other atrocities taking place in Gaza, we also see the daily resistance of the Palestinian people living in the West Bank.

Despite all obstacles imposed by the Zionist occupation, agriculture continues to be a form of resistance and reconnection with the past and its roots. Beyond the olive tree, the symbol of Palestinian resistance, national food production exists and finds ways to persist amid the control of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and the settlements.

There are also other forms of production, such as hydroponics – a technique that doesn’t require the use of soil – which opens up the possibility of using other areas where people live, including urban areas. In addition, there are ways of prolonging production by processing fruit and vegetables, which can be used after the harvest period, providing new ways of entering the market.

In the West Bank, Israel has strong control over agriculture, land, the production model, crops, and trade. 65% of the land is under Israeli control. Thus, in addition to living under oppression, there is the restriction of land use and free movement within the territory, often accompanied by a lack of resources to invest in production. This results in the following data: currently, only 26% of the Palestinian population has agriculture as its main source of income, and 22% of the population still lives in rural areas.

The struggle for land in the West Bank

West Bank territories have been divided into Zones A, B, and C since the Oslo Agreement in 1993, a failed attempt (for the Palestinian people) of diplomacy. Thus, only Zone C is under full Israeli military control. Zone A and Zone B are under Palestinian administration. But that doesn’t mean that the Palestinian-administered areas are free from Israeli rule.

In order to have access to arable land under Israeli control, Palestinian farmers have to ask the IOF for permission to access it, still with restrictions and under surveillance – therefore, in a situation of great danger. Farming is also an alternative to the high unemployment rates, or to working in Israeli colonies, where Palestinians suffer countless forms of violence, for a salary far below the average and under extremely precarious conditions.

But it is precisely because Palestinian labor is cheaper for Israel that unemployment and lack of access to other alternatives is deliberately maintained. In addition, agriculture itself – because it preserves ancestral practices and Palestinian history – is the target of a project of national and cultural erasure.

Although there is resistance to an agricultural economy, which corresponds to 6% of the GDP (however in 1967 it corresponded to 67%), most fruits and vegetables consumed in the West Bank come from Israel. Which means that they are sold at a much higher price, competing with local production and are produced with the heavy use of chemicals.

Going out to sell products means that every day farmers need to go through the Israeli checkpoints with their products – without any guarantee that the products will reach the final destination. Difficulties persist from accessing seeds to the final stages of production.

The long history of Palestinian resistance around agriculture demonstrates the strength of popular and collective resistance. Cooperatives have always been strong among Palestinian farmers, but there was an alarming decline after the Nakba in 1948, with the number falling by 87%. Still, the strength of the cooperative model and family farming, so present in Palestinian society, provides us with a lot of information about political organizing as well – through the collective mentality as a historical component of the economy and resistance (both of which are interlinked).

This is not only a way to resist, but also to challenge the Zionist occupation. An example of this resistance happened when, between 1987 and 1989, 500,000 trees were planted throughout the Palestinian territory during the First Intifada. The so-called “Victory Gardens” were popular family farming and animal raising initiatives based on solidarity. During this period, agro-industries were set up and run by neighborhood cooperatives.

Thus, beyond the substantial number of trees planted, the Victory Gardens have ensured a reliable source of income for thousands of Palestinian families. This initiative exemplifies how the Palestinian economy operates as an economy of resistance, challenging the logic of Israeli occupation and the fragmentation of Palestinian territories and population.

Although the state of Israel sells an external image of a green and sustainable economy it reveals its true face with the promotion of apartheid and greenwashing. The concept of a sustainable Israel, designed to uphold geopolitical power, proves advantageous and profitable for the regime, while simultaneously limiting Palestinian access to land and water, further obstructing local agricultural development.

The establishment of renewable energy facilities on Palestinian land, including solar panels and wind turbines, exemplifies the concept of “green colonialism”, which disregards the socio-economic impact on the local population and represents an additional form of territorial domination.

Although 65% of the land is under Israeli control, the company Mekorot holds a monopoly on water exploration in the region. The company has built pipelines that transport water from Palestinian-administered territories to Israeli settlements, running beneath the colonized land. These pipelines supply water to the settlers while imposing high charges on the Palestinian people for its consumption, granting them controlled access only when permitted.

Hunger, along with the control of land and water, is used as a weapon of war. These tactics serve to sustain the oppression of those who resist, progressively restricting access to natural resources in an effort to suppress their struggle and erase their history.

The struggle for food sovereignty

The imposition of monocultures and the application of pesticides, in addition to causing changes to the ecosystem, are also means by which Israel is directly targeting the food sovereignty of these communities. This changes the population’s food culture, impoverishing their food supply, increasing prices and reducing the variety of foods available for consumption, especially healthy and agro-ecological foods. The restriction on land, the obstruction of local commerce, the meat costing around 350 dollars per kilogram and the current curtailment of humanitarian aid: All this shows us what the Zionist project really is and its ways of turning everything into a weapon against the Palestinian people.

The very notion of food sovereignty comes to counter the idea of food security and is, according to the Via Campesina website, “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” Therefore, the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for food sovereignty represents a way of challenging the Zionist system itself, encompassing solidarity and a collective organizational logic that extends beyond the concept of food alone, addressing the broader political, economic, and social context.

To fully develop an agriculture rooted in agroecological transition and cooperativism, aimed at achieving food sovereignty, it is important to first achieve the liberation of the Palestinian people. There is no socio-economic development within a logic of invasion and domination. However, the continuity of resistance through the practices described in this text, as well as the maintenance of an entire culture and identity that the Zionists seek to erase, is the path to liberation.

Local Palestinian agriculture represents a form of struggle for self-determination by a people living under Zionist colonization, who never cease to fight and resist all forms of imposed constraints. Struggling for the right to produce, to foster local commerce, and to establish their own economy amidst colonization is a profound demonstration of strength.

Fighting for food sovereignty while on the other side of the wall the same people die of hunger or die trying to access food is an act of courage and a way of demonstrating that the Palestinian people will not cease in their daily struggle until Palestine is free from Zionist occupation and imperialism. It is a way of putting forward a popular project for society based on anti-imperialism, solidarity, and the autonomy of peoples.

*Vittoria Silva Paz Barreto has a master’s degree in history by UFPE and is a militant of the Internationalist Sector of MST.

**Edited by Fernanda Alcantara

*** Translated by Natalie Illanes Nogueira