Top IDF officer warns: Settlers' radical fringe growing

Last update - 04:07 20/10/2009

Top IDF officer warns: Settlers' radical fringe growing

By Anshel Pfeffer

The extremist fringe of West Bank settlers is growing, a senior officer on the Israel Defense Forces General Staff warned this week.

Though most West Bank settlers are law abiding, the officer said, recent years have seen an upswing in violent attacks by extremist settlers against both IDF troops and neighboring Palestinians.

The officer blamed individuals "formerly in positions of power, who are now unemployed and setting up all kinds of committees," for fanning the flames of radical sentiment among settlers. He did not name names, but top army officials suggested he might be referring to former Kedumim mayor Daniella Weiss

Weiss is widely seen as a leader of the aggressive young settlers commonly termed "hilltop youth," who have come into open conflict with both the IDF and leaders of the Yesha Council of settlements.

"The West Bank today is a hothouse for weeds," the officer said. However, he stressed, most of the Jewish settlers are "normative" individuals.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122324.html

Residents of al-Mugayyir village in West Bank claim 47 olive trees cut down, suspect settler who tried to steal olives last week. Farmers file complaints but remain pessimistic

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3792825,00.html

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"The olive harvest season in the West Bank has begun and, as in previous years, complaints are gathering by Palestinians who claim settlers are trying to sabotage their efforts by destroying trees and stealing olives.

Palestinians are enraged that after repeated complaints, authorities have failed to punish the offenders and take appropriate measures to prevent the incidents.

The Israeli Defense Forces have promised the Palestinians that this year's olive harvest season will not be disrupted, and restraining orders to settlers have been issued as a precautionary measure. However, Palestinians have said that nothing had in fact changed and disruptions to olive picking reminiscent of previous years have resumed.

Residents of the al-Mugayyir village north-east of Ramallah claimed on Tuesday that 47 of their olive trees have been destroyed. This, after last week a settler from the Adei Ad outpost in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council was caught harvesting olives from the village's lands, but was eventually released by police.

Residents of al-Mugayyir suspect that the same settler is responsible for Tuesday's sabotage. The residents further claimed that several weeks ago settlers ruined olives on 300 trees."

They're not even trying...

<snip>

"Residents of the settlement of Shvut Rachel clashed with Palestinians picking olives in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, after the settlers held a march to protest the "security threat" posed by the harvest.

The settlers, who were joined by residents of nearby illegal outposts, said the Palestinian harvesters were a threat because could gather intelligence and launch attacks from the olive groves.

"If they harvest near us, then we'll be near them," one of the settlers said as they headed out for the march.

When the settlers reached the Palestinians, the two groups began throwing stones at each other, after which the Israel Defense Forces and Border Police deployed troops to separate the sides.

Israel's security forces allowed the settlers to enter the nearby Palestinian village of Kraiyut to hold a brief rally against the harvest; troops subsequently removed them from the site.

No one was wounded during the incident."

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as well as probably a number of Israelis within the Green Line, Egyptians and Jordanians.

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terrorism problem.