Settlers attack US consulate cars
Slightly different reports of the settler attack by Buzzfeed 1, and AP, 2. 3, report of the attack on the olive trees by MEMO.
Uprooted olive saplings, January 2014. The settlers’ calendar for ravaging Palestinian livelihoods is to uproot saplings in January and cut down/destroy fruiting trees in autumn. Photo from AIC.
U.S. Diplomats Attacked By Settlers In The West Bank
A convoy of U.S. diplomats came under attack Friday by stone-throwing youths from a Jewish settlement.
By Sheera Frenkel, BuzzFeed News Foreign Correspondent
January 02, 2015
A convoy of U.S. diplomatic cars was attacked by stone-throwing Jewish settlers in the West Bank Friday, near the northern outpost of Adi Ad.
The diplomats were in the midst of a fact-finding mission, looking at local Palestinian olive groves that had been uprooted by hardline Jewish settler groups in acts of vandalism. The nearby Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya reported this week that thousands of recently-planted olive saplings had been uprooted by local settlers in recent weeks.
The convoy had just neared Adi Ad, a Jewish settlement, when it came under a barrage of stones. The U.S. Embassy said it was investigating the incident, and declined to comment.
A rock hurled from a distance with considerable force damages a US consulate car. Photo by Zechariya Sadeh
Israel Radio reported that no one was injured, but that the rocks caused light damage to the U.S. Consulate cars. They reported that U.S. security personnel, who were armed with rifles, drew their guns to confront the assailants. The U.S. State Department, however, denies that its security officials drew their weapons.
Israeli border police confirmed to Ynet that the group from the U.S. consul had been near the settlement, adding that they had not set up proper security coordination with local defense officials.
Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO, denounced Israel’s police and army for failing to enforce the law against Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
“The lax law enforcement which has permitted settlers to attack Palestinians has also brought about a situation where diplomats are also assaulted. This is liable to lead to diplomatic tensions,” read a statement released by the group Friday.
Palestinian farmers say that hardline settler vandalize hundreds of olive groves, and that the problem has only gotten worse with each year. Slow-growing olive trees, which have been grown for centuries in the ancient terraced hills of the West Bank, are often handed down through family members, and tilled by entire villages to produce oil.
Palestinians say settlers, most often youths from the remote Jewish outposts in the West Bank, intimidate them from working the land, and chop down trees worth hundreds of dollars.
Last year, the U.N. reported that Israeli settlers damaged of destroyed nearly 11,000 olive trees owned by Palestinians in the West Bank.
Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights watchdog, reported that from 2005 to 2014, there were 211 complaints filed with Israeli police in the West Bank for alleged vandalism against olive trees. Only four investigations ended in an indictment.
Israel police say settlers attack US officials in West Bank
By Associated Press
January 02, 2014
JERUSALEM — Jewish settlers attacked American consular officials Friday during a visit the officials made to the West Bank as part of an investigation into claims of damage to Palestinian agricultural property, Israeli police and Palestinian witnesses say.
The incident is likely to further chill relations between Israel and the United States, already tense over American criticisms of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and Israeli perceptions that President Barack Obama is only lukewarm in his support of Israeli diplomatic and security policies.
Settlers have often spoken against what they call foreign interference in their affairs, but this is the first known physical attack against diplomatic personnel.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that a small number of settlers threw rocks at officials who had come to an area near the Jewish settlement outpost of Adi Ad in two consular vehicles to look into Palestinian claims that settlers uprooted scores of Palestinian olive trees the day before.
He said that after the rock barrage began, the vehicles left the area, adding that police had opened an inquiry following the filing of an official complaint.
Another police official, spokeswoman Luba Samri, said that the American security personnel did not use their weapons during the attack.
Awad Abu Samra, who owns the land in the village of Tormousyya where the damage to the olive trees allegedly took place, said he accompanied the officials with two relatives. He described the officials as security personnel who had arrived in the village in advance of a larger party from the American consulate in Jerusalem, which was scheduled to arrive in the village later that afternoon.
“There were six security guards from the consulate riding in two cars,” Abu Samra said. “When they got out of the cars they were attacked by young settlers from the outpost who were carrying clubs and axes. They struck the cars with clubs but the security guards did not respond with their weapons.”
Abu Samra said that after the attack began the American security guards returned to their vehicles and drove away, explaining that they were under strict instructions not to engage the settlers in any way. He said that the planned visit of the additional officials from the consulate was called off after the incident.
Abu Samra said that last spring he and his family planted some 10,000 olive tree saplings on land the family owns in the village, but that since then, settlers have uprooted most of them.
Peter Galus, a spokesman at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, confirmed that American consular personnel were pelted by rocks thrown by settlers. He denied reports in some Israeli media outlets that the Americans had deployed and aimed their weapons at the stone throwers, adding that the United States was cooperating with Israel in investigating the incident.
U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke in Washington said his government was “deeply concerned” by the attack.
“The U.S. government follows economic and political issues in the West Bank very closely,” Rathke said. “We are working with Israeli authorities in their investigation of the incident, including by offering to provide video footage taken during the incident. We take the safety and security of U.S. personnel very seriously. The Israeli authorities have also communicated to us that they acknowledge the seriousness of the incident and are looking to apprehend and take appropriate action against those responsible.”
The United States is by far Israel’s most important foreign ally, providing the country with some $3 billion in annual aid and supporting its positions in international forums, despite frequent criticism.
Washington has long opposed Israeli settlement construction and maintains teams at diplomatic facilities in Israel that regularly monitor the settlements and their growth.
Israeli settlers uproot 6,000 olive saplings near Ramallah
By MEMO
January 02, 2015
Israeli settlers uprooted thousands of olive saplings east of the town of Turmus’ayya, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, yesterday.
Turmus’ayya deputy mayor Lafi Eid told the Safa news agency: “The settlers uprooted thousands of olive saplings in the area of Sidr and Alzarat to the east of the town, on the opposite side of the Adei Ad settlement.”
Nearly 6,000 trees were uprooted while dozens of old trees in the area were destroyed, Eid said.
He pointed out that the people in the town planted nearly 11,000 olive saplings last year through a project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, settlers uprooted hundreds of the saplings after the project ended.