Re: Illegal Jewish settlers on rampage ....

"Ed" aka "Patriot" ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes:
> I have not seen one news story on TV or read an article in any newspaper
> regarding this.

(K): Then you must be in the United States, where your government controls
what it wants you to see or read.

"Ed" aka "Patriot" ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes: 
> Oh, Karen "says" it's from Associated Press, but how convenient she doesn't
> provide any link.
> 
> Conclusion:  This story is a lie, just like everything else Karen Goering
> posts.

(K): Could be.  Bet some smarter readers can find the link.  You'll just
have to wish you were as smart as them.
________________________
 
> "Karen Gordon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>> (K): Just one more reason why the UN and the world are getting involved
>> in the Israeli/Palestine violence ....
>> ___________________
>>
>> 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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                  Bush lied - People died - Jobs dried
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