Thursday, October 21, 2010

Palestinians report wave of attacks on farmland as olive harvest is in progress

Settlers attacked residents of Kifl Haris village in Salfit and stole their olives, witnesses said. Locals reported that residents of the illegal Ariel settlement attacked villagers as they harvested their olives. Meanwhile, settlers supported by Israeli soldiers destroyed farmland in Al-Baq'a east of the West Bank city of Hebron, residents said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she would look into the report.
Palestinian farmers have reported a wave of attacks by settlers since the olive harvest began in early October. On Tuesday, settlers set fire to Palestinian crops on farmland in the Husan village in the southern Bethlehem district, and on Friday fires started by settlers were reported in Qalqiliya and Nablus in the northern West Bank.
An Israeli rights group said Tuesday that over 90 percent of investigations into offenses against Palestinians carried out by Israeli settlers in the West Bank fail. Yesh Din's statistic was part of a report that suggested Israeli authorities have failed to prosecute Israeli settlers suspected of vandalizing Palestinian crops.

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