- 25 sept 2011
PA: Settlers uproot 400 olive trees near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Dozens of Israeli settlers on Sunday uprooted over 400 Palestinian-owned olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Settlement Affairs official Ghassan Doughlas said settlers attacked fields between Qusra and Duma villages south of Nablus.
On Friday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man, Issam Kamal Odeh, 33, during clashes sparked by settlers who entered Qusra.
The incident comes amid a surge in settler violence in the northern district, including village raids, attacks on Palestinians and their property and the vandalism of two mosques in recent weeks.
In Qusra on Sept. 5, settlers torched a mosque and spray-painted anti-Arab slogans and the Star of David.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=423422 14 jan 2012, 19:52 , Respect -
Maria 1 oct 2011
Jewish settlers set Palestinian olive trees ablaze
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers set Palestinian agricultural fields on fire south of Nablus on Saturday, local sources reported.
Eyewitnesses said that the settlers of the Yitzhar settlement burnt olive trees in the area between Ainbous and Hawara villages before fleeing the scene.
Palestinian fire brigades rushed to extinguish the blaze in cooperation with locals.
Ghassan Daghlas, in-charge of settlement activity in northern West Bank, said that the fire ate up dozens of dunums cultivated with olive trees, adding that strong winds helped in the spread of fire from one field to another.
In a similar incident in Al-Khalil, Jewish settlers damaged 55 olive trees in Dhaheria village land on Thursday, inhabitants reported, adding that the settlers came from Shama settlement that was built on Dhaheria village land.
They said that the attack as the third in two years, adding that the settlers wrote threat statements against Palestinian farmers in the area.
http://fwd4.me/0CqL
14 jan 2012, 19:54 , Respect -
Maria 1 oct 2011
Settlers uproot Palestinian olive trees
Israeli settlers have once again targeted the Palestinian economy by uprooting about 200 olive trees near the West Bank villages of Hawara and Ein Nabus.
The Saturday attack comes after another such incident occurred on Wednesday and Israeli settlers destroyed about 40 olive trees near the city of Hebron, AFP reported.
Israeli settlers have on numerous occasions targeted Palestinian olive trees. Olive oil is regarded as the backbone of the Palestinian economy.
Palestinian farmers plant 10,000 olive trees in the occupied territories annually.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) released a report on Thursday, which revealed the devastating economic effects that the illegal occupation has had on the West Bank and Gaza.
The report showed that the Palestinian economy has been deprived of nearly USD 4.4 billion a year due to the occupation.
“No matter what the Palestinian people achieve by our own efforts, the occupation prevents us achieving our potential as a free people in our own country,” said Hasan Abu Libdeh, the PA Economy Minister.
Acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas officially submitted his bid for UN recognition of a Palestinian state to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 23.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202166.html
14 jan 2012, 19:54 , Respect -
Maria 2 oct 2011
Locals: Settlers burn olive trees in Ramallah villages
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers vandalized orchards in two Ramallah-district villages late Saturday, locals told Ma'an.
Settlers uprooted olive trees owned by Palestinian farmers and set fire to the groves in the central West Bank villages of Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham, witnesses said.
Shortly after the settlers left, Israeli forces prevented the farmers from accessing their fields to put out the fire, locals told a Ma'an reporter.
The region's popular resistance committee said it would not be silent over settlers' attacks, and will continue popular activities.
Residents of Nabi Salih hold weekly Friday rallies to protest against Israel's confiscation of village lands by nearby Jewish-only settlements.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=425327 14 jan 2012, 19:56 , Respect -
Maria 3 oct 2011
Agricultural committees: Protect olive harvest from settlers
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees announced on Monday an upcoming campaign to protect West Bank farmers from attacks by Israeli settlers during the olive harvest season.
Noting a recent escalation in attacks on Palestinian lands and farmers, the agricultural support organization said it will organize groups of volunteers to accompany workers picking olives during the season.
"Olive collecting will be a form of popular resistance," the group said, adding that they were asking Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel, as well as international activists, to join the campaign.
Volunteers will particularly help farmers harvesting groves behind Israel's separation wall, which juts into the West Bank cutting off Palestinian farm land. Palestinians must apply for permits from the Israeli military authorities in the West Bank to secure access to harvest their lands.
In 2010, the Ramallah-based Ministry of Agriculture said 4.3 percent of olive trees were inaccessible behind Israel's wall, the route of which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=425595
14 jan 2012, 19:57 , Respect -
Maria 3 oct 2011
PA: Settler violence 'not random'
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian agricultural land are "condoned and supported by the Israeli government," Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Sunday.
Over 500 olive trees were burned and uprooted on Saturday night, in settler attacks on villages near Nablus and Hebron, a government statement said.
Khatib said the incidents followed an intensification of violence by Israeli settlers on Palestinians, adding that the Israeli government's "failure to act shows its disregard for applying the rule of law to the settlers.
"There have been no reported cases of Israeli settlers being held accountable for these crimes," Khatib said, listing settler destruction of 3,000 olive trees and grape vines, burning of 83 dunums and flooding of 40 dunums of agricultural land in the West Bank in September.
As Palestinian farmers prepare for the upcoming olive harvest season, "the settlers' season of destruction has begun early," Khatib said.
"These are not random events," he added, accusing the Israeli government of providing settlers with full impunity and army protection while they destroy Palestinian land.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=425767 14 jan 2012, 20:01 , Respect -
Maria 4 oct 2011
Firefighters tackle blaze in Tulkarem
TULKAREM (Ma’an) -- Firefighters contained a large fire which ripped through an area of olive trees in the village of Beit Lid in the northern West Bank on Monday evening.
The blaze was extinguished after damaging over 200 olive trees, the civil defense said in a statement.
Witnesses said the fire was caused by negligence as farmers set fire to grass on their land and winds spread the fire across the olive fields.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=425951
14 jan 2012, 20:01 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2011
Settlers Cut Down 180 Olive Trees in Qusra, Fayyad Mulls Harvest Security Teams
On early Thursday morning, a group of Israeli settlers cut down a large grove of olive trees in the village of Qusra in the northern West Bank, near Nablus.
Ghassan Douglass, the PA official in charge of filing settler attacks, told Palestinian official news wire Wafa that the number of trees cut down exceeded 180.
The mass destruction of trees comes just two weeks after a violent September 23 confrontation between settlers, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian villagers, which left 35-year-old Essam Kamal Badran dead. In violation of its own open-fire codes, the Israeli army used live ammunition to protect settlers.
Many trees were also burned in the area, which belongs to three Palestinians: Ghassan Tawfiq Hassan, Fathullah Abu Raydeh, and Abdulmajeed Hassan.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad announced a plan to include members of the Palestinian security forces in a “voluntary campaign” to protect the olive trees during the harvest season, which begins in October.
Fayyad explained, “We undertake these efforts to protect the harvest from the practices of the occupation government and the continued attacks of settlers on our farms and [olive] groves, whose goal is to terrorize our people and steal their livelihoods.”
Settlers cut down, burned, or otherwise destroyed 4200 olive trees during the past year, with most of the attacks coming in the past two months in the Salfit, Qalqiliya, and Ramallah districts of the central West Bank. T
http://fwd4.me/0DDt
14 jan 2012, 20:04 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2011
Palestinian Olive Oil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x08FgH5Offg
14 jan 2012, 20:04 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2011
Official: Settlers uproot trees in Nablus village
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers uprooted 200 olive trees in Qusra village near Nablus overnight Wednesday, a Palestinian Authority official said.
A number of settlers destroyed trees in the south of the village at midnight, days before the olive harvest is due to begin, the Fatah official monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an.
The trees belonged to Fateh Allah Mahmoud, Ghassan Hasan and other Qusra villagers, Doughlas said, calling on the international community to put more effort into halting attacks on Palestinians by Israelis living in illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The Nablus area has witnessed a surge in settler attacks over the last month, including village raids, attacks on property and the vandalism of two mosques.
On Sept. 5, settlers broke into al-Nurayn mosque in Qusra, smashing windows before setting fire to used tires inside the building and spray-painting anti-Arab slogans and the Star of David.
Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=426570
Jewish settlers uproot hundreds of Palestinian olive trees
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers cut off more than 200 olive trees south of Qusra village south of Nablus city after midnight Wednesday, local sources reported on Thursday.
Ghassan Abu Daghlas, in-charge of settlement activity north of the West Bank, said that the cultivated land lots are owned by five citizens, noting that the attack took place as the farmers were getting ready for harvesting olives.
In another settler assault on Wednesday, a setter riding a speeding car south of Nablus threw unknown sharp objects at Palestinian high school children, wounding the first in his neck and foot while the second was injured in his back.
Both schoolchildren were hospitalized after the attack.
http://fwd4.me/0DCK
14 jan 2012, 20:05 , Respect -
Maria 7 oct 2011
B'Tselem: Israeli govt responsible for Qusra attacks
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities are failing to stop settler attacks on Nablus village Qusra, which has faced a repeated campaign of harassment from Israeli settlers, an Israeli rights group said on Thursday.
Israeli settlers uprooted 200 olive trees in the south of the village overnight Wednesday. Israeli organization B'Tselem said due to a new Israeli army post overlooking the valley, "the attack occurred in an open area with excellent visibility."
"Even if soldiers aren't present there at all times, the security forces maintain an ongoing presence in the area," a press statement from the group said.
"Regardless of whether the soldiers noticed the settlers and chose to ignore them or whether they weren’t present in the area, this is a particularly severe case where the security forces violated their obligation to protect the Palestinian residents and their property," it added.
B'Tselem said it had documented seven cases of Israeli settlers raiding the village in six weeks.
A village mosque was torched and vandalized in early September, and Israeli force killed one villager after settlers broke into the village later in the month.
Qusra is encircled by Jewish-only settlements, which house around 300,000 settlers in the West Bank, among some 2.6 million Palestinians. Settlements on occupied land are considered illegal under international law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=426923
14 jan 2012, 20:06 , Respect -
Maria 7 oct 2011
Settlers Burn Dozens of Olive Trees North Of Jerusalem
A group of armed extremist Israeli settlers of the Ramat Shlomo illegal settlement installed on lands that belong to residents of Shu’fat, north of Jerusalem, set ablaze dozens of olive trees that belong to two Palestinian families, the Palestine News Network reported.
Local sources reported that the setters torched a Dunam (0.24 Acre) of land that belong to the families of Abu Khdeir and Dar Issa.
The sources added that the settlers also torched wheat and fodder, and that despite calling the Israeli police directly after the attack, it took policemen three hours to arrive at the scene.
The residents also stated that, later on Thursday at night, a group of settlers stole ten sheep in the same area, but the residents chased them and took the sheep back.
The attack is the latest of a serious and dangerous escalation by the settlers in Palestine.
On Thursday morning, a group of extremist Israeli settlers uprooted at least 200 olive trees that belong to residents of Qasra village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Last Sunday night, extremists burnt a mosque at the entrance of Toba Zanghriyya village in the Galilee, and wrote “Price Tag” and “Revenge” on its walls.
On September 5th, a group of extremist Israeli settlers broke into a mosque in Qasra village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and torched it after destroying its property and writing anti-Arab slogans on its walls.
Earlier in June this year, settlers of the Alei Ayin illegal outpost torched a mosque in Al-Mughayyir village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, after burning tires and throwing them in the mosque.
Last year, the settlers burnt several copies of the holy Quran while desecrating two mosques near Bethlehem and Nablus.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62215
14 jan 2012, 20:07 , Respect -
Maria 9 oct 2011
PA: Settlers damage land in northern West Bank
NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Settlers caused damage several Palestinian villages' land in the Qalqiliya and Nablus districts on Sunday, an official said.
Palestinian Authority settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an that farmers from Farata village, east of Qalqiliya had arrived at their land to find that olives had been stolen.
Israeli forces arrived at the scene and demanded that all villagers return to their homes.
Soldiers were meant to coordinate a safe passage from settler attacks for villagers to pick olives but canceled due to a shortage in numbers, the official said.
Settlers “are escalating their attacks against Palestinians, under the protection of Israeli soldiers who are no longer controlling the situation,” the official news agency Wafa quoted Doughlas as saying.
In Nablus, dozens of Itamar settlers threw rocks at farmers who were trying to pick olives in the village of Awarta and stole harvest equipment, Doughlas said.
Meanwhile in Yanun village, in the valley overlooked by Jewish-only settlement Itamar, dozens of settlers attacked farmers and blocked them from their lands to harvest olives, he said, adding that Israeli army coordination to protect farmers has been postponed until Oct. 21.
To the east of Nablus, settlers from Elon Moreh cut down 45 olives trees in Deir al-Hatab village, on land owned by Palestinian man Shehada Amer, the official said.
"Settlers are trying to increase the tension with the beginning of the olive picking season," Doughlas told Wafa.
There has been a surge in settler attacks against Palestinians over the last month.
On Sept. 25, dozens of Israeli settlers uprooted over 400 Palestinian-owned olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Also in September, settlers in Nablus have vandalized two mosques and an Israeli army base, uprooted olive trees and set fire to cars.
Some 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same territory.
All settlements are considered illegal under international law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=427382 14 jan 2012, 20:09 , Respect -
Maria 9 oct 2011
Settlers clash with Palestinian farmers
NABLUS (AFP) -- Jewish settlers clashed with Palestinian farmers on Sunday, as they tried to pick olives from land owned by relatives of two men convicted of killing a settler family.
At least three Palestinians were injured when dozens of settlers from Itamar armed with sticks and stones attacked the group of about 50 workers harvesting olives, on land belonging to the Awwad family from the nearby village of Awarta, an AFP correspondent reported.
Palestinian Authority settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas said the settlers also stole equipment and threw rocks at farmers.
"Settlers are trying to increase the tension with the beginning of the olive picking season," Doughlas told official news agency Wafa.
Israeli troops arrived at the scene and broke up the clashes, while settlers remained close by, throwing stones and shouting: "Death to the Awwad family."
Israeli soldiers also put out a fire in a nearby field lit by a number of Palestinians, a military spokeswoman said. Palestinian witnesses confirmed there had been a fire but said it was started accidentally.
The olive groves lie very close to the edge of the Itamar settlement where a young couple was stabbed to death along with three of their young children in March.
Settler officials told AFP they were protesting over the fact that the Palestinians were working land belonging to the Awwad family.
Hakim Awwad, 18, confessed to the murders before an Israeli military court in September and was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences, while his 19-year-old cousin Amjad Awwad admitted his involvement on Oct. 4. He has not yet been sentenced.
Palestinian sources confirmed the land belongs to the Awwad family, part of which lies within the boundaries of the settlement.
Benny Katsover, head of the committee representing settlers in the northern West Bank, said the army had allowed the Palestinians to pick olives from a grove next to the settlement's boundary which belonged to the Awwad family.
"It is an absolute scandal to allow these Palestinians to come so close to Itamar, above all when we are talking about the family of those murderers who killed the Fogel family," he told AFP.
"Once again, the army is putting the lives of Itamar residents in danger," he said.
Twelve-year-old Tamar Fogel, who lost her parents, two younger brothers aged 11 and 4, and her three-month-old baby sister in the attack, was one of those who went out to confront the farmers, he said.
David Haivri, a spokesman for settlers in the northern West Bank area, accused the farmers of attacking the demonstrators.
"The Palestinians threw stones at the demonstrators and shouted death threats at them, saying: 'We'll do the same to you as to the Fogels'," he said in a statement emailed to AFP.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said one Palestinian had been injured in clashes which erupted with settlers near Itamar.
"It's the start of the olive picking season so there were clashes," she said. "We dispersed the clashes, and now the Palestinians are being allowed to pick olives with the force securing them."
She said one Palestinian was hurt by a rock and treated at the scene by an army medic.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same territory.
All settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Ma'an staff writers contributed to this report
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=427493 14 jan 2012, 20:11 , Respect -
Maria 10 oct 2011
Settlers attack olive harvesters in Nablus district
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers attacked on Monday morning Palestinians harvesting olives in the village of Azmout to the east of Nablus, while Palestinian farmers in Nablus district have appealed for protection from settler attacks.
Local sources reported that dozens of settlers from the nearby settlement of Elon Moreh which built on land confiscated from Palestinians east of Nablus, attacked Palestinian families harvesting their olive crop from their olive groves and tried to stop them from continuing with the harvesting.
The sources added that fist fights between the Palestinian farmers and the settlers ensued and farmers refused to leave their fields and insisted on continuing with their harvesting.
The settlers have recently launched a campaign of attacks on Palestinian villages and olive groves, especially in the Nablus area, on the eve of the olive harvesting season which starts early October.
Meanwhile, Palestinian villagers to the south of Nablus have appealed for protection during the season so that they can harvest their olive crop without being attacked by Jewish settlers or the wild hogs the settlers release into Palestinian farms.
A Palestinian woman was injured in the village of Awarta to the south of Nablus when she was suddenly attacked by a wild hog while harvesting olives.
A number of settler attacks have taken place lately on those villages to the south of Nablus in the form of burning and breaking trees, attacking farmers and stealing their harvest.
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