The Unholy Alliance Strikes Back: Settlers and the Military Work Together

[Violet_Crumble]

by Neve Gordon
February 20, 2006

It was a beautiful winter day. I was among approximately 80 Israeli activists who set out to plant trees in the South Hebron region, home to hundreds of Palestinian cave-dwellers. The desert air was chilly, the land moist after the rains, and the hills full with wild flowers. Yet the tranquil setting was deceptive.

For years the cave-dwellers have been subjected to ongoing harassment by the Israeli military, police, and Jewish settlers, whose aim is to undercut their livelihood so that they will "voluntarily" move to other parts of the West Bank. The idea, so it seems, is to cleanse this region of its Palestinian inhabitants.

The cave-dwellers are farmers who do not have running water or electricity and are dependent on subsistence agriculture. Aware of their unique lifestyle, the settlers strike them where it hurts most. In the past they have destroyed and poisoned their water wells, obstructed their access to grazing grounds, prevented them from plowing land and from harvesting their crops, and more recently have uprooted and cut down their olive trees. While there were days when the military and police initiated such violations, lately they have stepped back and allowed the settlers to take the lead. The settlers, in other words, have become the government's instrument of destruction.

That Saturday we decided to plant 1,000 trees, as a way of marking the Jewish holiday Tu Bishvat and the Muslim holiday Id el Shajar (both of which celebrate the life of trees), while strengthening the Palestinian inhabitants' efforts to hold on to their land. Scores of Palestinians from all over the Hebron region came to join this non-violent action and to express their solidarity with the cave dwellers.

A few hundred yards before we reached our destination we were met by the police and military. Amazingly, a whole company of men in uniform were mobilized because a group of Israelis and Palestinians wanted to plant a few trees together.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=9768

[David Dunham]

1. These settlers are slime-balls and should be jailed.

[mom cat]

2. Planting trees and advocating peace are obviously subversive to

some people.

[madrchsod]

3. why am i not surprised?

genocide is a weapon of choice for those who think others have no value.