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snip>
"Reporting from Jerusalem for The Times of London, Sheera Frenkel
wrote:
Israeli settlers on horseback set fire to fields of olive trees and stoned Palestinian cars in the West Bank yesterday, apparently in response to the Israeli army’s removal of an illegal outpost in the area.
At least 1,500 Palestinian-owned trees were destroyed and two Palestinians were injured in the attack, near the city of Nablus, by about 30 settlers, security officials said. Farmers fought fires late into the afternoon, as fears grew that the flames would spread across the dry summer fields.
Anshel Pfeffer and Jack Khoury noted in
Haaretz that "olives are an important cash crop for Palestinians, who have complained of frequent attacks on their groves by settlers." According to Frenkel:
It was the most recent example of the “price tag” policy, in which settlers seek revenge by attacking Palestinians for every outpost that is demolished. “The goal is to create a price for each evacuation, causing Israeli authorities to think twice about carrying them out,” the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said.
A settler activist, Itamar Ben-Gvir, put it more directly: “We will not be suckers for the Israeli Government. We will not sit idly by and allow them to remove our homes,” he said.
moreSettlers to build 11 new West Bank outposts<
snip>
"Israeli settlers have announced their intention to build 11 new illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
In fliers distributed in existing West Bank settlements, an organization calling itself the Land of Israel Faithful urged settlers to establish the new colonies.
The call coincides with the expected arrival of US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell, who is likely to urge Israeli authorities to declare a moratorium on all construction in the settlements. Mitchell will deliver this message in talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak later in the day.
"Only the establishment of settlements will put the State of Israel back on the track of independence and growth, and will create national resilience in the face of international pressure," the settler leaflet reads.
The flyer also makes an allusion to a moment in 1946 when Zionist settlers established 11 new Jewish settlements in the Negev Desert during British colonial rule in Palestine."
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