Dozens of Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian farmers on Thursday during the olive harvest in the town of Burin, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that some 60 Jewish settlers attacked the olive harvesters in an area south of Burin.
One of the farmers confirmed that the settlers, who came from the illegal Yitzhar settlement, attacked his family and other farmers while they were harvesting their olive crops.
Every olive harvest season, Israeli settlers attack Palestinian groves & cut down ancient olive trees.
When she saw her family’s trees butchered, an elderly Palestinian woman told me: “It felt like the chainsaw cut my heart in half. I couldn’t breath.”
1,000,000 trees ..1/2 https://t.co/sFDdYmSjOE
— Fadi Quran (@fadiquran) October 5, 2021
The farmer added that Israeli soldiers, who were in the area, did not attempt to stop the settlers; instead, they would only intervene to protect the settlers if the farmers attempted to kick them out of their lands.
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
“Jewish settler violence should not be analyzed separately from the violence meted out by the Israeli army, but seen within the larger context of the violent Zionist ideology that governs Israeli society entirely,” wrote Palestinian author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.
"Illegal Jewish settlers on Sunday chopped off dozens of olive trees in the village of Burin, in the occupied West Bank province of Nablus…"
Article from @PalestineChron https://t.co/Oo0o2r7kvX
— Palestine Deep Dive (@PDeepdive) October 4, 2021
“Settler violence has long since become part of Palestinians’ daily life under occupation,” according to the Human Rights Group B’tselem. “Israeli security forces enable these actions, which result in Palestinian casualties – injuries and fatalities – as well as damage to land and property. In some cases, they even serve as an armed escort, or even join in the attacks”.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
