The settler ate my homework…
Stageleft probably wasn’t reading me in 2007, and so, for his sake I am republishing a post on the interesting twists the whole ’settlers destroyed my olive trees’ meme has taken through the years.
Inevitably, the minute one posts that Palestinians damaged the crops of Israelis farming in Samaria or Judea come cries of protest from the usual Palestinian apologistas. Apparently, a number of professional Palestinian apologists think there is some kind turnabout going on and believe it is all in the interest of fair play.
Apparently, Israeli settlers have been cutting down Palestinian Olive trees on a fairly regular basis. So much so that it has become a real growth industry among Palestinians. As a matter of fact, the Israeli daily Maariv carried a report on this unique Palestinian growth industry last December (2006). Luckily for the professional Palestinian apologists Maariv carries no English translation. Fortunately, the Israeli Insider did carry this summation of the article for the international Anglo community:
Maariv NRG reports that Palestinian youths were caught in the act as they were cutting olive trees illegally, claiming they did it at the request of the owner of the grove. Forest inspectors caught the youths axing the trees, shedding a new light on frequent complaints by Palestinians farmers that settlers cut their trees in an attempt to hurt their livelihoods.
In the past, as a result of such complaints, IDF soldiers and police have been called on to protect the Palestinians farmers in the territories during the olive harvest season. But the police suspect now that in some cases the Palestinians themselves are the ones cutting the trees and then blaming the settlers in an attempt to get compensation from the Israeli Civil Authority.
(…)
Sources in the police said that over the years the police have experienced a phenomenon of the filing of complaints to the Civil Authority regarding the destruction of olive trees, along with a claim for financial compensation. In the last year alone the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria filed claims for 350 thousand shekels ($75,000) for the destruction of olive trees.The police said they now intend to check the complaints in detail. A senior source in the police told Maariv NRG that “most of the complaints for damage to olive trees were filed in recent years at the end of the harvest season or towards the end, something that increase the suspicion that this is a cooked deal.”
Gee, here’s a newsflash. Anyone who will not hesitate to kill you and sanctions the indiscriminate use of suicide bombing to kill grandparents, parents, babies, children, teenagers, et al at the ice cream/pizza parlours, restaurants, hotels, markets, malls or a buses will not hesitate to lie, cheat or steal.
Now I am not going to insist that every destroyed olive tree owned by a Palestinian in the disputed territories is a product of Palestinian imagination or even malfeasance…but until the perqs are actually caught – we do need to be extremely circumspect in casting blame or fault. Even more so now that Israelis setters are no longer content to remain deaf to every libel or slander.
The thing about catching “the perps” is that the author of the report noted that the Israeli government record in imposing the rule of law on settlers is lamentable.
But, as I noted in my comment to you on stageleft, the point of my recent post was not about the violence (which the Israeli government has acknowledged takes place at the hands of “a certain number of settlers”) but of the redefinition of those acts to minimize them — exactly as the American government did when it redefined certain torture practices as “enhanced interrogation” so that it could claim it did not torture prisoners.
When an individual, or a group of individuals, engage in violent acts against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature what is it called?
@stageleft Sorry but your lamentable, isn’t going to cut it, I follow the settler community quite closely in the disputed territories and the harassment via the police and IDF is quite intense. The real problem with catching the ‘perq’s’ is more about evidence than anything else and without evidence its impossible to prosecute anyone and the government would love nothing more than prosecute a ’settler’ for any crime.
But the real problem I have with your post is that lack of evidence thingy. There is no proof at all that settlers set the mosque on fire or have recently cut down anyone’s olive trees…although, neither you or the UN seems unduly bothered by the fact there is no evidence against ’settler’ malfeasance – the UN just issues their blanket condemnations and you follow in line going ‘here, here!’
What there is real proof of it the continued violent attacks against persons – Israeli Jews – but somehow in your world a violence against a Jewish person and violence against Palestinian property are on a level playing field.
You are seeking to re-frame the discussion away from the intent of my post, and my comment here.
Settler violence happens, the Israeli government has admitted that it happens, and they have decided to frame it as simple “vandalism”. They have taken this tact for, IMO, exactly the same reason that the Americans decided to call water-boarding prisoners “enhanced interrogation”.