HEBRON, West Bank /PNN /
What began as a childhood dream for Imad Abu Turki, a Palestinian craftsman from the city of Hebron, has become a lifelong journey of invention, resilience, and quiet defiance. Now an elderly man living with chronic back and joint pain from years of hard labour, Abu Turki proudly continues to build agricultural harvesting machines by hand—machines that he once repaired, then improved, and now manufactures himself from scratch.
At just 15 years old, Abu Turki completed a vocational training course in metal lathe work, milling, and welding at the Hebron Vocational Centre. He began his career at a local workshop owned by Hajj Yusri Al-Tabakhi, where he repaired agricultural threshers, known locally as darrasat. At the time, these machines were not produced locally and were later imported from Turkey.
As his experience grew, Abu Turki started modifying the imported machines, adapting them to Palestine’s unique agricultural needs—its terrain, climate, and the specific characteristics of local straw. Over time, his skillset evolved from repairs to full-scale manufacturing, creating locally made threshers that rival the quality of imported models.
Building Machines Tailored to Palestine
“Instead of just repairing imported machines, I asked myself, why not build them myself?” Abu Turki told PNN. “I was already changing and adapting the parts to work better on our land. So I decided to build my first one. Then the second. Then the third. Thank God, it worked.”
His threshers are mounted on tractors and measure 120cm wide by 90cm high, with a length of 2.5 metres. They can process up to 1.6 tonnes of material per hour. The straw is ground by rotating blades, sifted through a mesh to control texture, and separated from the grain using fans and sieves. The final output—clean straw and clean grain—is collected efficiently.
After Israeli forces confiscated much of his heavy equipment in previous raids, Abu Turki began designing and building threshers that run on electricity rather than diesel engines.
Customers are often surprised by the durability and performance of his machines, he said. He uses thicker steel than most imported models and custom-builds each part to withstand pressure and heavy workloads. “The machine works fast, the output is clean, and the parts are solid,” he said.
Word has spread, and demand for Abu Turki’s machines has grown. Many buyers now prefer his models over imports, with some purchasing them to resell for profit.
A Workshop Raided, Tools Confiscated
But the path has not been without hardship. Abu Turki has long faced harassment from Israeli authorities, who have raided his workshops multiple times. “I call it the Palestine Workshop for Industry and Trade,” he said. “But every four to five years, the occupation forces come and confiscate the machines—especially the lathes.”
He recounted several such incidents. In 2023, during the early months of the war, Israeli forces raided his workshop in the town of Yatta, confiscating two industrial lathes and a grain separator. He later opened a new workshop, where he currently works. That too came under attack.
“At the beginning of the war, there were no issues,” he said. “But then the soldiers came at night. They arrested one of my sons and brought a crane with them. They took two more lathes, a milling machine, and a surface planer.”
Despite the ongoing military pressure and health issues, Abu Turki remains undeterred. In addition to threshers, he builds and adapts other machines on demand—anything he sees, he can build.
His determination speaks to the resilience of many Palestinian craftsmen who continue to innovate under occupation, driven not just by economic necessity, but by pride in building with their own hands.
