Palestinian olive farmers' tragic tale...

[Aidoneus]

Palestinian olive farmers' tragic tale...
By Khalid Amayreh in West Bank
Sunday 26 October 2003

For tens of thousands of Palestinian olive farmers throughout the West Bank, there is more to worry about than just harvesting their crops before the advent of winter.

Ever since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation more than three years ago, messianic Jewish settlers have been systematically terrorising Palestinian farmers, killing them, stealing their crops and burning or destroying their orchards.

This year, farmers such Idris Abd al- Hamid of the village of Burin in the northern West Bank, are appealing to peace activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Israeli peace groups such as “Gush Shalom” and “Peace Now” to accompany them to their orchards.

--snip--

Nearly two years ago, two settlers from the settlement of Itamar near Nablus, shot dead 28-year-old Farid Nasasrah in full view of his children and wife, as they were picking olives at the family orchard at the nearby village of Beit Furik near Nablus.

The two settlers, identified as Yaron Degani, 40, and Gad Tena, 48, confessed to having killed Nasasrah, claiming they did so in “self-defence”.

Despite their confession, the Israeli police set them free seven days after the killing, citing “insufficient evidence proving that a murder had taken place”.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/515312D9-57B5-4897-9A39-01A416D54971.htm

[Forkboy]

1. There might be a bomb in them thar olives

[Scurrilous]

2. How dare..

..those Palestinian nomads grow and harvest olives in Eratz Israel. What are they trying to do? Make someone else's desert bloom?

[rini]

3. try something new

Your "news" source is about one year behind the times. What next.......

Flash! "Israel makes Jerusalem its capital."

[Resistance]

4. well

have Israeli settlers been destroying crops and terrorizing Palestinian farmers or not?

[bluesoul]

7. Rini

The plight of the Palestinians cleary does not bother her or whatever the Israelis do to them. So much about hypocrisy..

[tinnypriv]

5. Why are the embassies in Tel Aviv?

;-)

[tinnypriv]

6. Shit too easy a question

"Anti-semitism", right? :eyes:

[SOS]

8. Once the wall is completed

this will no longer be an issue. That's because the wall annexes
80% of the fertile land in the West bank into Greater Israel.
55% of total land will be annexed and 65% of water resources as well. So within a year there will be no fertile land or water for the Palestinian population to grow anything.

[Jim Sagle]

9. I had salad for lunch today. It had olives in it.

:9

[bluesoul]

10. Jim does it again

And that's supposed to be funny in light of this thread? Oh my...

[Forkboy]

12. Says it all

[SOS]

11. "...and burning their orchards."

Zuckerman must have missed this while writing his US News article.
Firemen, arsonists, etc.

[Aidoneus]

13. Jewish settlers destroy olive groves

Jewish settlers destroy olive groves
By Amal Hamdan
Wednesday 05 November 2003

Jewish settlers have gone on a rampage in occupied West Bank towns and villages, hacking down hundreds of olive orchards just as they were about to be harvested.

Settlers uprooted, chopped and burned trees overnight in the villages of Sawia, Beta, Yitma, Bait Furik, Hawwara and Tal, said Palestinian witnesses on Wednesday.

One witness said Israeli soldiers in Tal, about six kilometres southwest of Nablus, fired into orchards, sparking a fire and leaving 200 trees charred.

Olive crops amount to up to 50% of the livelihood of Palestinians in some of these towns.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/32835393-14A4-40A4-9BF8-5D7E12AA66B4.htm

[Saudade]

15. "Settlers"

These jewish "settlers" are, in my view, the absolute lowest life form on earth bar none. Slime mold on a public toilet seat has more class than these racist thugs from Brooklyn.

[dArKeR]

14. Palestinian farmers seek protection against settlers - TGM

Einabus, West Bank — Men with chainsaws turned Fawzi Hussein's olive grove into a wasteland overnight — 255 trees cut down at the trunks, fruit-laden branches wilting on a West Bank slope, at the height of the harvest season.

The suspected culprits: militant settlers who have been harassing Palestinian farmers for years, especially in the past three years of fighting. Human rights groups say it is part of an attempt to drive Palestinians off their land.

The destruction of about 1,000 trees in three villages, including Mr. Hussein's, was on an unusually large scale. It prompted an outcry in Israel, with settler rabbis calling it a sin and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promising to track down the vigilantes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031111.wsett1111/BNStory/International/

I guess it's only the truth when it hits a North American news source.

[GabysPoppy]

16. Maybe there is another side to the story

I do not know if this is the same incident or not and I do not claim that it is.

http://directory.kol-israel.com/asites/?

Petitioners in 'Olive Tree' Episode Refuse Polygraph

Police have requested that the left-wing Israelis and Arabs from the Samaria village of Inbus submit to lie-detector tests after an olive-tree expert brought in by the police concluded they may have manufactured the entire "olive tree saga" as a provocation.


The police investigation into the cutting down of Arab-owned olive trees near the Jewish neighborhood of Mitzpe Yitzhar has taken a dramatic turn. The opinion of an expert from the Jewish National Fund – brought in by the police – is that the “tree-cutter” severed the upper branches in a way that avoids any serious damage to the actual tree. On the basis of the expert opinion, the police are requesting that those who filed the accusations - left-wing activists and Arabs from the village of Inbus - submit to lie-detector tests.

Last week, a group of Israeli left-wing activists, together with Arabs from the village of Inbus – opposite the outlying neighborhood of Mitzpe Yitzhar – filed a police complaint claiming that their olive trees had been cut down by Jewish residents of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). The Samaria region Police came to investigate, bringing along an olive-tree expert from the Jewish National Fund, who concluded that the trees had not been cut down at all, but rather had merely had their upper branches pruned. He stated: “whoever cut these trees did so expertly in the specific manner which does not cause any serious damage whatsoever to the tree, whose branches will begin to grow back within 2 to 3 months.”

If it's not the same incident, I apologize for placing it here