45 cases of Israeli settler violence against Palestinian harvesters in 2021, says B’Tselem

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, said in a report it documented 45 incidents of settler violence against Palestinian harvesters and their property.

During the olive harvest season lasted from early October 2021 to the end of November 2021, the rights group said 45 cases of violence were committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinian harvesters and their property.

In these incidents, settlers physically assaulted farmers, stole crops, vandalized trees and damaged personal or agricultural property.

The 45 cases of settler violence include: 25 cases of trees vandalized, 17 cases of crops stolen, 11 cases Palestinians physically assaulted, 11 cases harvesting equipment damaged, 7 cases Palestinians driven out and barred from their lands, and 3 cases personal property damaged.

The rights group noted that settler violence Palestinians is “yet another method Israel uses to gain control of land in the West Bank.”

Settlers carry out a variety of violent acts against Palestinians, including physical assaults, stone throwing, threats and harassment, damaging of trees and crops, vandalism of cars, blocking of roads and even firing of live ammunition.

As a result, Palestinians are afraid to go to their plots of land – which the Israeli occupation government then takes over and uses for its own purposes.

The Israeli occupation authorities, including the occupation forces and the law enforcement system, are fully aware of this reality, B’Tselem said, adding that they “enable and back the settlers’ violence, and then enjoy the outcome.”

Every year, settler violence during the olive harvest draws public attention in Israel and around the world– although for Palestinians, these acts are by now a routine feature of daily life.

The temporary scrutiny is probably the primary reason why Israeli occupation authorities “claim to offer Palestinian farmers special protection during this season, in the form of a “coordination mechanism”: the military notifies farmers whose lands lie near settlements of specific days on which they are allowed to access their land for the harvest, and claims troops will be sent to protect them against violent settlers.”

“Yet this mechanism, which is based on the absurd assumption that settler violence is an unalterable fact, was never intended to assist Palestinian farmers. Instead, its primary function is to create a false show of protection,” B’Tselem said.

“Unsurprisingly, the mechanism does little for the farmers in reality: the days allotted to them are few and far between, and are often not enough to harvest all the olives.”

“Since the farmers are barred access to their land all year round, they cannot tend to the trees, whose yield decreases. Even when the farmers reach their land on the scheduled dates, the military does not always protect them. Sometimes, no troops arrive, leaving the farmers vulnerable; at other times, soldiers do show up – but as soon as settlers appear, they quickly drive the Palestinians out of their own land, and do not balk at using force and weapons to do so.”

In 18 of the incidents, occupation forces were present during the attacks.

In 10 of these, the soldiers supposedly sent to protect the harvesters joined in the violence against them.

In three of the 10 incidents, they even dispersed the harvesters using tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets.

For example, on 23 October 2021, in the Turmusaya plain – an agricultural area in Ramallah District – about 20 masked settlers attacked harvesters with clubs and stones and injured several of them, including minors. They also vandalized and torched cars belonging to town residents. Soldiers who arrived fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated metal bullets at residents who had come to help the families under attack. Two of the residents sustained minor injuries from the bullets.

In a testimony he gave on 23 October 2021, Muntasser Salameh (50), a resident of the village of Turmusaya in Ramallah District, described how settlers attacked him and his family while they were harvesting olives on their land.

“We couldn’t see the settlers because the trees were hiding them, but pretty soon, some of them reached us,” Salameh said.

“They were masked and were carrying clubs and sticks. They looked like a gang of robbers. We didn’t have time to escape. They chased us, threw stones at us, and beat us with clubs and sticks. We tried to run and defend ourselves as much as we could.”

“I was terrified for my daughters Sa’ida (10) and Janat (5). I picked them up, carried them away and sat them under one of the trees. Then I joined my brother and the young men who were there, and we tried to defend ourselves.”

“The girls were crying and terrified, but I had no choice. I had to leave them so I could fend off the settlers…”

“While I was helping the neighbors lift up the fence between our grove and theirs so the kids could escape, four settlers jumped me.”

There has been a sharp spike in settler violence against Palestinians and their properties in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The violent acts include beating, throwing stones, issuing threats, torching fields, destroying trees and crops, stealing crops, using live fire, and damaging homes and cars.

There are 280 illegal settlements in the West Bank, which are home to more than 440,000 Israeli settlers.

In the first half of 2021, 416 anti-Palestinian incidents perpetrated by extremist Israeli settlers were reported – more than double the figure for the first half of 2020 and more than all of 2019.

Of the 416 incidents reported between January and June of 2021, there were approximately 139 incidents of vandalism, stone-throwing, assaults and so-called price-tag incidents

In 2019, there were 363 incidents and 507 reported in 2020.