Illegal Jewish settlers on rampage ....

(K): Just one more reason why the UN and the world are getting involved
in the Israeli/Palestine violence ....
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Palestinian farmers seek protection against settlers

Associated Press -  Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 

Einabus, West Bank - Men with chainsaws turned Fawzi Hussein's olive grove
into a wasteland overnight  255 trees cut down at the trunks, fruit-laden
branches wilting on a West Bank slope, at the height of the harvest season.

The suspected culprits: militant settlers who have been harassing
Palestinian farmers for years, especially in the past three years of
fighting. Human rights groups say it is part of an attempt to drive
Palestinians off their land.

The destruction of about 1,000 trees in three villages, including Mr.
Hussein's, was on an unusually large scale. It prompted an outcry in
Israel, with settler rabbis calling it a sin and Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon promising to track down the vigilantes.

It also heightens fears that this kind of extremism  albeit of a tiny
minority among the 220,000 Jews in the West Bank  is a harbinger of the
resistance the Israeli government could face if it tries to uproot
settlements in a land-for-peace deal.

There have been hundreds of settler attacks, including rampages through
Palestinian villages, since fighting broke out in 2000. A Palestinian
human-rights group says 25 Palestinians have been killed by settlers in
the past three years. Palestinian gunmen, in turn, have targeted
settlements, killing dozens of residents.

Palestinian officials and Israeli opposition leaders say Israeli security
forces are mostly choosing to ignore attacks by settlers and are doing
little to protect Palestinian civilians  one of the duties of an occupying
power.

Settlers succeed in murdering, uprooting trees and attacking Palestinians
without the army and the police controlling them, said legislator Ran
Cohen of the dovish Meretz party and a colonel in the Israeli army reserves.

Police say they have established a special unit and filed 85 indictments
in 2003. Spokesman Doron Ben-Amo says attacks have dropped from 350 last
year to 192 this year, suggesting that maybe the settlers are beginning to
understand that there are laws.

Mr. Hussein, the olive farmer, is from the village of Einabus near Nablus.
His grove is on a slope near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, whose
people are known for their militancy.

On Oct. 27, Mr. Hussein, several Israeli peace campaigners and a
journalist were visiting the grove when seven settlers approached wielding
clubs.

They started threatening us and pushing us and throwing rocks, said Arik
Ascherman, leader of the Rabbis for Human Rights. I was kicked a couple of
times and hit by a rock and pushed down a couple of times.

The attackers fled when police showed up.

Mr. Ben-Amo said several settlers were questioned but none was arrested.
Mr. Ascherman said he offered to identify the attackers in a lineup but
police never got back to him.

Police say they are trying hard, but lack the staff to protect all farmers
at all times. Military officials say that farmers are offered escorts on
request but that few Palestinians respond. After 36 years of occupation,
many Palestinians distrust the Israeli authorities.

The military itself has uprooted tens of thousands of trees in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip in the past three years, usually in areas from which
attacks on Israelis were launched.

West Bank farmers say they mainly fear settlers.

Mr. Hussein, 55, a father of 14, said he rarely went to his grove until
the harvest began last month. I can't come up here, because I am afraid
for my life, he said.

Yehoshua Mor-Josef, a spokesman for the Settlers' Council, said extremists
are blackening his entire community with this horrible thing of cutting
down olive trees.

Zvi Berenstock, the secretary of Yitzhar, said he did not know if members
of his community were involved, but he said settlers have to defend their
communities, and he contended that Palestinians disguised as farmers
attacked Jews from olive groves.

An Israeli military official, insisting on anonymity, said he knew of
three incidents in 18 months in which Palestinian extremists have cover in
olive groves, but none in which they posed as farmers.

Questioned in Parliament, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz promised a thorough
investigation, saying the army is doing its utmost to protect Palestinian
farmers.

Critics, however, say nothing has changed since 1994 when an official
inquiry into the Hebron mosque massacre  a settler attack that killed 29
Palestinians  found that the security forces are lax about enforcing the
law against settlers.

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                    Stop Bush - Before he kills again
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