Israeli activists help Palestinians harvest their olive crop

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22102006/323/israeli-activists-help-palestinians-harvest-olive-crop.html

I thought we were all supposed to hate each other?



Israeli activists help Palestinians harvest their olive crop

Sunday October 22, 09:50 PM By Jennie Matthew

JIT, West Bank (AFP) - Fearful that radical Jewish settlers will swoop and steal their olives, Palestinians are turning to an unlikely source of protection to secure this year's desperately needed harvest.

Several hundred Israelis, from left-wing activists to moderate Jewish settlers, regularly volunteer to help Palestinians pick olives, believing that their presence deters the worst excesses of radical violence.

"I think what we do now is the way of peace. Palestinians and Jews work hand in hand on the trees and pick fruit together," says Zacharia Sada, West Bank coordinator for the Israeli rights group Rabbis For Human Rights.

"It gives us hope that the other side of the occupation, the Jewish people, are a peaceful people and want to live together," he adds, sitting in the shade and listening to the soothing sound of olives pattering to the ground.

For Palestinians, the olive is a tree that most symbolises their attachment to the land in the occupied West Bank.

(snip)

link: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22102006/323/israeli-activists-help-palestinians-harvest-olive-crop.html

This builds PEACE!

Guess they couldn't stop them all?

<snip>

"The Israel Defense Forces is demanding that Palestinian farmers not allow Israeli and foreign sympathizers to escort them during the olive harvest to places where military protection is needed against abusive settlers, Palestinian sources in the Nablus region told Haaretz.

An Israeli security source confirmed the report, saying that IDF officers have been influenced by statements of settlers, who say they are enraged during the harvest by the presence of Israeli leftists who act as provocateurs. A 2005 memo to soldiers from the Civil Administration regarding the olive-picking season states: "Involvement of various entities, Israeli and foreign, is expected, as an 'aid' to the Palestinians in the harvest and as a motive for creating provocations."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/771997.html

witnesses to prevent abuse! How dare they!

I like it!

:)

k&r

Palestinians need international/Israel protection.

Here's praying that more of this happens every day from now.

k&r

k & r My soul is singing. Thanks to those activists.

Seems a special shame that some good news for once cannot be
highlighted.

and brightens my day!

K&R