RUTHFULLY YOURS

Israel/Palestinians: Uprooting of Palestinian Olive Trees
Question Taken at the October 13, 2011 Daily Press Briefing

Question: Is the State Department aware of Israeli settlers uprooting Palestinian olive trees? What is the State Department’s reaction?

Answer: We are aware that Israeli settlers are again destroying Palestinian trees. The United States condemns and calls for an immediate end to such actions. We note the Government of Israel is working to address the situation. Those perpetrating these provocative acts should be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Unfortunately, attacks of Jewish agriculture are ignored even though I personally passed on the following information via diplomatic channels last November when this was sent around by the Yesha Council:

Yesha Council in cooperation with the Yesha Human Rights Organization.

Arab and Left-Wing Activists attack Jewish farmers in Judea and Samaria

The data presented in this paper outlines in detail the on-going suffering of the Jewish farmers in Judea and Samaria. These farmers, legally working their land, undergo severe abuse every day from their Arab neighbors who are supported, and even incited, by left-wing and farmers’ rights activists under a guise of nobly protecting unfortunates. Damage caused to the Jewish farmers is estimated to total hundreds of thousands of shekels yearly, in addition to the realization that their crops have been maliciously spoiled and destroyed which is simply immeasurable.

Many times, left-wing activists provoke the incidents. For example, on October 18th, 2010 Arik Asherman, a left-wing anarchic activist, came to Erez Ben-Saadoun’s field and started shouting at Erez that he stole olives from the Arabs, and immediately called the village mayor and demanded that he come down with residents to confront Erez. When the mayor arrived, he declared that the olives belong to Erez and not to the village, to the chagrin of Asherman, who began yelling at the village mayor. This event could have ended differently if the mayor had not backed up Erez’s claim.

The law of the State of Israel protects Arab olive pickers, yet does virtually nothing to protect the Jewish farmer. The media is almost never sympathetic to their pain and the troubles they have. In addition, during attempts to file a criminal complaint, the police often refuse to register the complaint without proof of ownership of the area by the complainant (e.g. following damage caused two weeks ago in Meshek Achia). Some of the plots have no official registration, and so the farmers who file the complaints expose themselves to the possibility of criminal claims against them by the state.

The following report is intended to shed some light on the absurd situation created in Judea and Samaria, where there is blatant discrimination in law enforcement between the two populations: over-enforcement, designed to protect the Arab farmer, and under-enforcement which abandons the Jewish farmer and his field.

Incident according to Date, Place, Farmer, Description of incident

2007
Bat-Ayin, Gush EtzionYehuda CohenBurning of 900 acres of pasture, stables, and 30 pomegranate trees.
2007
Ofra, Shlomi PuzakBurning of irrigation pipes, damage to vineyard, destroying crops, and uprooting vines.
Pnei Kedem, Moshe CohenUprooting of 500 olive trees.
Hebron, Menachem LivniBurning of 100 cherry trees, setting fire to agricultural buildings, and uprooting of 400 vines.
Har Sinai Farm, Har Hebron Herd stolen.
Har Hebron, Yaakov Talia Herds stolen 6 times.
2007
Neriah, BinyaminShlomi CohenUprooting of 5000 cotton seedlings during a demonstration of left-wing activists and Arabs.

14/8/10 Shiloh About 35 acres of vineyard burnt.
15/8/10 Shiloh Setting fire to 70 acres of pasture, vines burnt.
22/8/10 Shiloh Setting fire to 80 acres pasture, burning 200m of a main water pipe.
10/6/10 Hebron Natan Bar DavidSetting fire to a vineyard, burning of an agricultural structure.
21/6/10 Hebron Setting fire to an olive grove, 75 meters of water pipes and electrical cable burnt, and damage to vineyard crops.
18/10/10 Eli Erez Ben- SaadonDamage to 30 olive trees, branches cut.
10/2010 Shiloh Meshek Achia (Achia farm)Theft of fences and irrigation pipes and damage to olive trees
10/2010 Chavat Gilad (Gilad Farm) Uprooting of olive and fig trees, theft of agricultural tools in the Gilad Farm area.
8/2010 Chavat Gilad (Gilad Farm) Water pipe stolen, to the value of 60,000 shekel
2010 (throughout the year) Shavei Shomron, Kedumim, Itamar, Tapuach and Chavat Gilad Sheep stolen. In light of these thefts, many farmers have stopped raising herds.

Will someone alert the State Department that Jews suffer?

This year’s report should be out soon.