Settler leader: Palestinian olive farmers destroy their own groves
The experts, saw the trees and determined they were most likely cut down by Arabs in order to maintain the grove, as is traditionally done.

by Nadav Shragai, Haaretz
October 19, 2008

A Palestinian woman clutching stones during a confrontation with
settlers surrounding an olive harvest in the West Bank on Sunday. (AP)

Many settlers say the accusations that they harassed Palestinian olive pickers are libelous.

Benzi Lieberman, the former head of the Yesha Council of Settlements and Samaria Regional Council, recalls going with tree-clearing expert Yitzhak Scali of the Scali farms outpost to examine olive trees that Palestinians claimed were cut down by settlers.

"This expert, who didn't have any stake in either side of the dispute, saw the trees and determined they were most likely cut down by Arabs in order to maintain the grove, as is traditionally done," said Lieberman.

Lieberman is convinced Palestinian farmers often stage scenes of destruction.

"They benefit twice," he said. "Cutting the trees down benefits the groves, and they also benefit financially because the damage supposedly was caused by settlers."

Lieberman also recalled how leftists "torpedoed" an agreement between residents of the Itamar settlement and their Arab neighbors.

"Village representatives would have gone to the community and, along with Itamar residents, evaluated the crops' yield, and determined the sum Palestinians would receive for the harvest. The extreme left prevented this," he said.

Lieberman admits, however, that the so-called "hilltop youth" of the surrounding outposts often clash with the farmers.

"If we don't protect the individual rights of the Palestinians, our neighbors we will break our hold and our roots in Judea and Samaria. We have an interest in maintaining what belongs to them, and what belongs to us. They are human beings, and we must deal with them as with human beings," he said.

Orit Struk, the head of Judea and Samaria Human Rights Group, said the media's treatment of confrontations between settlers and Palestinians is hypocritical.

"More than a year ago we released a document describing hundreds of instances of Palestinians harming Jewish farmers and their property. The media wasn't interested at all, and the police weren't exactly excited either," she said.