An Israeli source reported that an extremist settlers group attacked Israeli peace activists, members of Merez Israeli leftist group while touring Hebron. In Qalqilia settlers raided Palestinian olive orchards and stole, picked and stole the olives.
Several settlers verbally and physically attacked the group as it arrived at an illegal settlement outpost in Hebron, known as Beit Hadassah.
The leftist group included members of Knesset Yossi Belin and Ran Cohen, in addition to several members of “Breaking the Silence” movement in Israel.
The settlers attacked the delegates after one of the activists attempted to remove a slogan which described Belin as a traitor.
In a separate incident, resident Fathi Rashid Mansour, 68, from Kafer Qalil town, near Qalqilia said that an extremist settlers group of Bracha settlement picked the olives, and left him bare trees.
The settlement was constructed on Palestinian orchards which were annexed from the residents, including part of Mansour’s orchards.
Last week, Mansour wanted to pick his Olive trees, but since he can’t enter his land without a prior permission from the Israeli authorities, he was unable to do so.
Nawwaf Al Amer, a local journalist from Kafer Qalil, said that Mansour, as well as all farmers in the areas became separated from the orchards as a result of settlements, construction of settlement roads, and the Separation Wall.
Last year, settlers burnt orchards planted with olive trees in the same area, in addition to uprooting and cutting the trees. Wide areas of Mansour’s orchards were annexed by the army in order to expand the main street near the settlement.
