Rights group: 69 cases of Palestinian olive trees destroyed, but no prosecutions

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The human rights organization Yesh Din says not one of the 69 complaints filed during the past four years on damage to Palestinians' trees in the West Bank has resulted in an indictment. The organization released a report on the matter Tuesday and makes specific reference to damage caused to olive groves, central to the livelihood of Palestinian villagers.

The olive harvest season is coming to an end in most parts of the West Bank this week, with the exception of those areas at higher elevations. Attacks targeting trees harvested by Palestinians - olive trees in particular, but also almond, fig, lemon and others - has been on the rise in recent years.

During the past four years, Yesh Din filed 69 complaints which are under investigation by police in the West Bank. The toll involves many thousands of trees in numerous areas, from Susya in the southern Hebron Hills to Salem in northern Samaria.

According to the report, 27 cases (40 percent of the cases for which complaints were filed) were documented between January and October of this year. Notwithstanding Israel Defense Forces reports that the olive harvest passed "quietly" during the months of September and October, the human rights group reported dozens of incidents in which hundreds of Palestinian trees were damaged.

According to the reports, not a single one of the 69 cases under investigation has led to an indictment of the suspects. Fourteen cases are still under investigation; another four are being evaluated by police and state prosecutors, and a decision is pending on whether the authorities will press charges against the suspects.

"Continuous damage to the livelihood of Palestinian families is not met with immediate response from the law enforcement authorities," said Lior Yavne, head of research at Yesh Din."

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[ProgressiveMuslim]

1. Israeli settlers (or citizens) who commit those obscene acts

should be forever barred from setting foot on that land.

Those heinous acts demonstrate that those individuals lack any connection to that land. It is for those barbarous sons of bitches that Palestinians live under apartheid?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Would you support the same penalties when palestinians do the same thing?

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Palestinians don't destroy olive trees, so don't know why yr asking such a weird question...

What do you think should be done with Israeli settlers who do such things? Do you think they should be sent back to Israel?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. So your absolutist position is that Palestinians have never destroyed olive trees?

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Please answer the question I asked you...

Do I need to repeat it in bold?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Because, despite your absolutist screed to the contrary, there may well have

been events where palestinians destroyed Israeli olive trees, and I wanted to see if PM would accept the same punishment for them.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. You still haven't answered the question I asked you. Please answer it now n/t

If you don't want to answer questions yr asked, at least be courteous enough to say so instead of just ignoring questions and firing off questions of yr own..

[ProgressiveMuslim]

17. I googled it and can't find a single example. Those who are attached to that land would never

commit such an atrocity.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

23. If that is indeed true, then the question is academic but still waits on your answer

Note that not of non-Israeli occupants of the West Bank and Gaza are that attached to the land.

[Violet_Crumble]

24. How about you answer the questions you've been asked which you've ignored?

I'm finding the evasiveness that's happening to be suspiciously coming across as though yr unwilling to speak out against extremist settlers and their attacks on Palestinians and their property....

I hope until you start answering questions yr asked, that no-one wastes their time attempting to answer diversionary questions you fire at them...

[ProgressiveMuslim]

27. Exactly. What should be the penalty for ACTUAL CRIMINALS?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

10. Better yet, back to Brooklyn.nt

[oberliner]

12. Back to Brooklyn? What is that supposed to mean?

What percentage of Israeli settlers do you think are American?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

14. Too many. Perhaps it explains their ability to cut down an olive tree.

They are foreign imports without attachment to the land.

[oberliner]

20. Foreign imports without attachment to the land?

What is your position on immigration in general?

[Crunchy Frog]

22. I personally believe that immigrants should be deported back to country of origin

when they behave in that fashion. And that's any immigrants to any country.

[Violet_Crumble]

26. Many of the violent extremist settlers are from the US...

And they head straight from the US to outposts in the West Bank with the intention of attacking Palestinians and trying to drive them off their land. In this sort of situation, I don't think it'd be wrong for the Israeli government to deport them back to the US.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

28. Israel is free to do as it wishes on the land it legally controls.

Bastard wanna-be gun toters from Brooklyn (or from anywhere) should not be allowed in the WB... especially when apartheid is required to prop up their fiefdom, and especially when Palestinians who were BORN THERE, such as my husband, are banned.

What's your position?

[oberliner]

30. My position: Deported, no - Prosecuted, yes

I think anyone who breaks the law in the way these settlers apparently have ought to be prosecuted by the Israeli authorities regardless of their country of origin.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

32. What's your position on the settlers in general? I don't think I've heard you talk about

your views of the settlements and those who live on them.

[oberliner]

34. I have repeatedly referred to the Geneva Initiative with respect to the settlements

I believe that proposal has a good outline for what should be done about the settlements.

Here is the relevant passage from the summary:

2. Borders and settlements:

* The border marked on a detailed map is final and indisputable.
* According to the accord and maps, the extended borders of the State of Israel will include Jewish settlements currently beyond the Green Line, Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and territories with significance for security surrounding Ben Gurion International Airport. These territories will be annexed to Israel on agreement and will become inseparable from it.
* In return to the annexation of land beyond the 1967 border, Israel will hand over alternative land to the Palestinian, based on a 1:1 ratio. The lands annexed to the Palestinian State will be of equal quality and quantity.


http://www.geneva-accord.org/mainmenu/summary

[ProgressiveMuslim]

35. I'm not asking you about your position on the Geneva Initiative. What do you think of the settlers?

Of their work in the WB? Of the havoc they've wreaked? Of the potential of civil war that they represent?

[oberliner]

38. They are a mixed bag

Some of them clearly ought to be in jail for their criminal behavior as I've indicated.

A two-state solution along the lines of the Geneva Initiative would bring an end to whatever havoc is being created by some of the more fanatical among them.

The attempted imposition of a one-state solution would most likely be a recipe for a potentially horrific civil war.

[oberliner]

4. Can you clarify your apartheid position?

Do you believe that term is applicable within Israel or just in the West Bank and Gaza?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

7. Can you clarify your position on settlers who desecrate the land?

[oberliner]

8. Check out the Geneva Initiative

My position on the settlements mirrors what is presented therein.

http://www.geneva-accord.org/

Are you willing to clarify whether or not you believe that apartheid is being practiced inside Israel itself?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. No I do not. While I believe there is definitely a two-tiered system that clearly discriminates

against Arab citizens, I would not characterize that as apartheid.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Did you notice the question you asked didn't get answered?

Is anyone else noticing the trend where rapid fire questions are fired off that are coupled with either ignoring questions asked of them, or questions being answered with something that wasn't being asked?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

18. I surely did notice that. Seems to be the MO around these parts lately.

[Violet_Crumble]

19. Sure does. I've just asked him a question that I hope gets answered...

I won't hold my breath, though...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

33. Discriminating against illegal immigrants who commit crimes is not comparable to apartheid.

How many countries are there that permit illegal immigrants (which pretty much all Israelis in the occupied territory are) who commit serious crimes to remain in or return to that country?

[LeftishBrit]

6. Disgusting.

These are criminals and need to be treated as such.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

25. Yr support of what the extremist settlers do is sickening...

..but totally predictable. Why is it that you don't object to the destruction of trees that take many years to mature and the destruction of innocent peoples property and livelihood?

[Tripmann]

29. You know what? Just before I clicked on this thread...

..I was thinking that it would be flipped around, the focus put on the victims, the story distracted from. With the same shameful vigour of how rethugs claimed 9/11 actually started on clintons watch, the issue is now twisted in this thread so that it is no longer up for discussion. What if the rape victim was the rapist, what if the abused had been the abuser. Distract 101. RW heaven.

Hang your head.

[pelsar]

31. the settlers attachment to the land...is not one of "love" for the land...

its one of power...gods will sort of thing. They don't love the ecology, the environment etc.....its not even close.

i would like to see the americans amongst them, sent back to the US.....as an extremist there, they can do far less damage (limited to sending money)....They are usually the far more extreme of the extremist..or at least that is my impression and in the settlements, especially the ones they go to, they only get strengthen.

They have no real connection/relationship to israel, to the citizens to the country....

[ProgressiveMuslim]

36. I hope the zionists read what you wrote Pelsar. That's my impression 100%. nt

[pelsar]

37. theres a local "joke"....in israel

that its a magnet for the religious weirdos..... (sounds better in hebrew).

during my reserve service we "got one of them".....to say the least its quite interesting with him. i have no idea how he fell into be with us, but he has no connection to any of us on the most basic social level.

I was stuck with him once for 24 hours....its was an enlightening conversation. Obviously in his eyes i am not just wrong, not just an extremists, not just a danger to the jewish people but a traitor as well. It took him a long time to get to that-(8 straight hours of conversation), as it was hidden between the PC words of an american who talks well and has lived "amongst the gentiles."

just like sadat dumped on us gaza...we're going to give you these guys as part of the deal......