PHOTOS: Settlers attack Palestinian olive pickers, damage trees

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man October 20, 2013 | Edit

Palestinian olive growers and their trees were attacked across the northern West Bank on Sunday, resulting in at least four injuries and the destruction of dozens of trees at the height of the yearly olive harvest.

PHOTOS: Settlers attack Palestinian olive pickers, damage trees

Masked settlers are seen descending from the direction of Yitzhar toward Palestinian olive growers on the lands of Burin, October 20, 2013. (Photo: Munir Qadus / Yesh Din)

In the village of Burin on Sunday, Palestinian olive pickers and Israeli volunteers were attacked by masked settlers, who arrived from the direction of the nearby settlement of Yitzhar, notorious for being the home of many violent settlers/elements.

Two Palestinians and two Israelis were injured by the settlers who attacked them with stones and iron bars, according to Rabbis for Human Rights, whose volunteers were attacked. The Israelis, aged 71 and 18, were both injured in their faces.

A man’s face is bloodied after being attacked by Jewish extremists who descended from the direction of Yitzhar toward Palestinians and Israeli volunteers picking olives in Burin, October 20, 2013. (Photo: Munir Qadus / Yesh Din)

Close to 2,000 Palestinian olive trees have been either uprooted or burned in recent months in areas the Israeli army knows to be flash points, where it should be providing protection for the Palestinian olive pickers, Rabbis for Human Rights wrote in a statement.

Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Palestinian olive growers from the village of Qaryut on Sunday discovered that settlers damaged their trees the day before. Officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture who arrived at the scene counted 60 damaged trees belonging to 12 different farmers.

Palestinian farmers from the West Bank village of Qaryut assess the damage done to their olive trees the day before by Israeli settlers, October 20, 2013. (Photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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