W. Bank Palestinians target of frequent attacks: Report

By Lubaba Thuqan

RAMALLAH, Palestine

At least 100 attacks on Palestinians -- by Israeli forces and/or Jewish settlers -- were recorded in the occupied West Bank this harvest season, including attacks on farmers and their olive groves, a new report asserts.

In a report released this week, the Commission to Resist Colonization and the Separation Wall (affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian government) cites 56 separate attacks on Palestinian farmers in the West Bank -- and another 44 attacks on Palestinian olive groves -- during the current olive harvest season.

“The Israeli authorities are pursuing a scorched-earth policy as part of its plan to expand [Jewish-only] settlements and build its racist wall of annexation,” the report states, referring to the massive separation barrier that Israel is erecting across the West Bank.

It goes on to assert that the scope of settler attacks on Palestinians and their property had “expanded to include farmers and olive trees throughout the West Bank”.

According to the same report, as many as 1,690 Palestinian olive trees were uprooted and stolen by settlers during the current harvest season.

“These attacks are aimed at turning fertile agricultural land into barren territory that can later be appropriated by [Israeli] settlements built on Palestinian land," the report states.

Attacks, the report goes on to note, have been concentrated mainly around the West Bank cities of Nablus, Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Hebron (Al-Khalil).