Tales of the Palestinian Wheat Sheaves: When a Harvest Turns to Ash

For generations of Palestinian farmers, the June harvest was a sacred time of community, folklore, and relief from the winter’s anxieties. But in recent years, a systematic campaign of arson and violence by Israeli terrorist settlers has turned Palestine’s historic wheat fields and threshing floors from spaces of celebratory feasts into dangerous frontlines of popular resistance. From our fields in the village of Qira, the struggle to reap what we sow has become an urgent testament to our unyielding steadfastness on our ancestors’ land. June: the month of wheat harvest Historically, Palestinians named June “Iqlaash” after the “Qaloosha” (sickle). This directly reflects the primary work of the month: the wheat harvest and the threshing floor (Baydar) operations, which represent—alongside the […]