Settlers, Palestinians clash during olive harvest

[Scurrilous]

Annual olive harvest brings annual harassment of Palestinians by settlers in West Bank. Rabbis for Human Rights: 'IDF must enforce the law and allow Palestinians to harvest olives without being attacked'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3322872,00.html

<snip>

"Two settlers and two Palestinians were injured during clashes that broke out between a group of settlers from Shvut Rachel and a group of Palestinians harvesting olives in the area. One of the Palestinians was moderately injured and evacuated for medical treatment at a hospital.

The Palestinians say that they were attacked by the settlers while they were harvesting their olive trees. IDF and police forces were called to the scene, along with activitist from 'Rabbis for Human Rights'. But according to the Palestinians the settlers had already returned to Shvut Rachel by the time security forces reached the area.

The settlers claim that the area belongs to them, but the civil administration agrees that the land belongs to the Palestinians. Police have questioned parties from both sides.

Hashem Ahmad, a local farmer, told Ynet that soldiers escorted the harvesters from their village to their lands, located near the settlement. But shortly after securing the area the soldiers left.

"A few minutes later 20 settlers came and started attacking us," says Ahmad, "they beat me and my wife and injured one of the harvesters. They broke his jaw and also beat his wife and father. When the soldiers came back the assailants had already left."

[Drum]

1. I wish that everyone there

would grow the fuck up.
:(

[IntiRaymi]

4. I wish that the settlers

Would grow the fuck up.
Seems to me that the palestinians were not doing anything childish.

[breakaleg]

2. When the settlers claim the land is theirs, it's absurd.

I realize the government is using the settlers for their own reasons, but on some level, to allow the settlements to continue with this type of extremist point of view, does nothing but make matters worse.

[Tom Joad]

3. Palestinians have no rights Jewish Israeli settlers are bound to respect

The IDF has no law that they need to obey, the IDF is the law.

[Scurrilous]

5. Settler celebration prevents West Bank farmers from harvesting olives

<snip>

"Israel Defense Forces troops prevented residents of the West Bank village of Dir al-Hatab, near Nablus, from harvesting their olive trees this weekend. The army said the move was intended to prevent a confrontation between residents of the village and visitors to the nearby settlement of Elon Moreh."

<snip>

"Palestinian farmers said they were informed of the prohibition on tending the trees only on Thursday evening, after they had planned on taking advantage of dry weather to harvest the olives.

Some twenty Israeli volunteers and 100 farmers from the village tried to approach the groves but were denied access.

The farmers said they were assaulted last Wednesday in the groves, and one of them was wounded in the back after stones were thrown at him.

Yoel Marshek, head of the Kibbutz Movement task force, said "there was no reason to block the farmers from their groves. The distance between them and Elon Moreh is 1-2 kilometers. An officer who makes such a decision has to understand that agriculture is dependent on the weather and that this decision hurts the farmers."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/783683.html

[Tom Joad]

6. The IDF does not take into consideration the needs of the Palestinian farmers...

if they do, it is to inconvenience the farmers as much as possible.
There is no other rational explanation for the actions of the IDF.

[breakaleg]

7. So the settlers are gearing up for a confrontation and the IDF basically

takes their side and prevents the farmers from doing their work. This is so unfair and biased I can't believe they can get away with that.

Why didn't they prevent the "visitors" from reaching the settlement? Why not stand outside the settlement and block the settlers from heading towards the farmers? There are better ways to deal with this.

[Lurking Dem]

8. This is bullshit.

I don't see why the IDF couldn't create a cordon to kaap the settlers away while the farmers got their olives.

[oblivious]

9. I like these reports -- Israelis and Palestinians working together in trust and friendship

An olive branch in the West Bank
By Joel Greenberg

Chicago Tribune

...Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, a group that has been at the forefront of efforts to secure the olive harvest, said helping Palestinians by working with them on their lands was building important bridges.

"This is one of the few opportunities for average Israelis and Palestinians to meet," Ascherman said. "Rather than flying off to Europe for encounters abroad, people are working here shoulder to shoulder and talking to each other. It's the dialogue of the olive groves. Not only is it the right and Jewish thing to do, it also restores hope on both sides that things could be different."

With his beard and skullcap, Ascherman could be easily mistaken for a Jewish settler as he drives his car with Israeli license plates through West Bank villages and over bumpy mountain tracks to the olive groves, but wherever he arrives, he and the volunteers he organizes get a warm reception from grateful villagers.

..."It's important for Palestinians in the villages to see Israelis who are not hostile settlers. It helps balance out the Palestinian position," he said as he and colleagues picked olives, dropping them onto a burlap bag spread under a tree. "It's also important to work on the micro level through simple, direct human contact. The police and army don't enforce the law on the settlers unless they come under pressure."

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/world/15879370.htm

Israeli activists help Palestinians reap olive crop
Jennie Matthew
Jordan Times

...Several hundred Israelis, from left-wing activists to moderate Jewish settlers, regularly volunteer to help Palestinians pick olives, believing that their presence deters the worst excesses of radical violence. "I think what we do now is the way of peace. Palestinians and Jews work hand in hand on the trees and pick fruit together," says Zacharia Sada, West Bank coordinator for the Israeli rights group Rabbis For Human Rights. "It gives us hope that the other side of the occupation, the Jewish people, are a peaceful people and want to live together," he adds, sitting in the shade and listening to the soothing sound of olives pattering to the ground.

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061027-093411-9452r

[breakaleg]

10. I think it's the extremists on both sides that are leading the violence.

That means both the Palestinian militants and the Israeli's setting the policy in the region.

And it's everyone else who gets to suffer.

[oblivious]

11. And the militant Jewish settlers who attack them for harvesting their own olives.