From palestine-info.co.uk
Daily News
Jewish settlers hack Palestinian olive groves
By
Nov 6, 2003, 13:43
Occupied Jerusalem - Religious Jewish settlers on Wednesday hacked down hundreds of old Palestinian olive trees in the Nablus region, apparently to deprive Palestinian villagers of their livelihood and main source of income.
Palestinian sources told IRNA Jewish settlers carrying gasoline-powered saws hacked down hundreds of trees at the villages of “El-Sawiya” and “Hiwwara” near Nablus Wednesday morning.
Some of the trees are reportedly a hundred-years old
A few days ago, settlers from the settlement of “Yitzhar” north of Nablus destroyed in likewise manner more than 500 olive trees at the village of Aynabos.
In both cases, the Israeli army, which keeps outposts and watchtowers in the two areas, refused to stop the settlers.
An Israeli army spokesman, when asked why the army failed to stop the settlers from hacking the groves, said “the army is not responsible for preventing these incidents.”
“According to the law, the army can’t deal with Israeli citizens and the settlers as you know are Israeli citizens.”
“This is the responsibility of the police, not the army.”
Palestinian farmers have accused the Israeli army of conniving with the settlers.
“They know what the settlers are doing. They provide them with protection, and whenever we seek to protect our trees from settler terrorism and vandalism, the army goes on alert and begin shooting at us. The judge here is our enemy,” said Ahmed Hussein, a farmer at the Aynabos village, who lost hundreds of trees to the settler.
One Israeli lawmaker, former deputy-defense minister Ephraim Sneh, described the wanton hacking as “putting every Jew to shame.”
“what I saw today puts every Jew to shame. It is shocking that the army and the government allow these crimes to continue.”
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