page_title: Israeli settler violence
section_title: Attacks on Palestinian agriculture and property
hierarchical_section_title: Israeli settler violence / Attacks on Palestinian agriculture and property
caption_attribution_description: English: "Gas the Arabs" painted on the gate outside a Palestinian home in Hebron by Israeli settlers. It is signed "JDL" (Jewish Defence League). Norsk nynorsk: «Gas the Arabs» malt på porten utanfor ein palestinsk heim i Hebron av israeliske settlarar. Den er signert med «JDL» (Jewish Defence League). Română: „Gazați arabii”, inscripție vopsită de coloniști israelieni pe o ușă de intrare într-o locuință palestiniană din Hebron. Este semnată „JDL” (Jewish Defence League).
context_page_description: Israeli settler violence refers to acts of violence committed by Jewish Israeli settlers and their supporters against Palestinians and Israeli security forces, predominantly in the West Bank. Although the majority of settlers do not engage in violence, there has been a rise in violent acts by extremists against Palestinians, non-Jews, Israel Police, and IDF troops in the early twenty-first century. Between January and November 2008, 515 criminal suits were opened by Israel against settlers for violence against Arabs or Israeli security forces; 502 of these involved "right wing radicals" while 13 involved "left wing anarchists". In 2008, the senior Israeli commander in the West Bank said that a hard core of a few hundred activists were involved in violence against the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.
  Some prominent Jewish religious figures living in the occupied territories, as well as Israeli government officials, have condemned and expressed outrage over such behavior, while religious justifications for settler killings have also been given.
context_section_description: Olive farming is a major industry and employer in the Palestinian West Bank and olive trees are a common target of settler violence. According to OCHA roughly 10,000 Palestinian West Bank olive trees and saplings have suffered either uprooting or damage from Israeli attacks in 2013, a rise from about 8,500 trees damaged in 2012. B'Tselem alleges that "olive pickers in areas near certain settlements and outposts in the West Bank have been a target of attacks by settlers, who have cut down and burned olive trees and stolen the crops", and that "security forces have not taken suitable action to prevent the violence". The IDF barred olive picking in extensive areas of land, stating that the closures were to protect the olive pickers. The case went to the Israeli High Court in 2006 which found that, as a rule, lands are not to be closed because of settler violence, and that the IDF must enforce the law. According to B'Tselem the IDF has worked around this by saying the lands are closed to protect the settlers.
  Amnesty International has said that scores of Palestinian-owned sheep as well as gazelles and other animals were poisoned with fluoracetamide near Tuwani on 22 March 2005, depriving Palestinian farmers of their livelihood.
  In July 2009, a group of Israeli settlers riding horses and carrying torches raided Palestinian areas, burning 1,500-2,000 olive trees and stoning cars.
  In March 2011, two EU heads-of-mission reports detailed a tripling of violent settler attacks over three years. The report found that the attacks were especially aimed at Palestinian farmers and their livelihood in a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation which included the destruction of over 10,000 olive trees in the preceding year. The report noted that the Israeli state had "so far failed to effectively protect the Palestinian population".
  2013. According to a confidential IDF document for just the period from Sept. 11 - October 20, 2013, the following Palestinian olive groves, near Israeli settlements near Elon Moreh, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Ma'on, and the Ma'on Farm, Susya, Shavei Shomron, Zayit Ra'anan, the Gilad Farm, Shilo, and Yitzhar, and all under IDF guard, were damaged, but were not reported in the media:
  Sept. 11: 500 trees burned on land belonging to the village of Deir al-Khatab.
  Sept. 15: 17 olive trees chopped down on land belonging to the village of Kafr Laqif.
  Sept. 17: 18 olive trees chopped down on land belonging to the village of Kafr Laqif.
  Sept. 20: 27 olive trees burned in Kafr Qaddum.
  Sept. 21: 70 trees chopped down in Kafr Qaddum.
  Oct. 2: Serious damage to several olive trees on land belonging to the Raba'i family.
  Oct. 2: Serious damage to about 30 olive trees in the village of Jit.
  Oct. 3: 48 olive trees of the Shatat family chopped down.
  Oct. 5: Serious damage to 130 olive trees of the Fukha family.
  Oct. 5: 15 olive trees chopped down and olives stolen in the village of Deir Sharaf.
  Oct. 7: Serious damage to about 60 olive trees and olives stolen in the village of Jit.
  Oct. 7: Serious damage to eight olive trees on land belonging to the village of Ras Karkar.
  Oct. 7: 35 olive trees in the village of Far'ata chopped down, and about a quarter of the olive crop stolen.
  Oct. 8: About 400 olive trees in the village of Jalud set on fire.
  Oct. 13-14: Olive trees and grapevines vandalized in the village of Far'ata.
  Oct. 20: Yitzhar settlers assaulted Palestinians and human rights volunteers as they harvested olives, leaving two farmers and two volunteers - a 71-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman - injured.
  According to Yesh Din, 97.4% of complaints submitted to Israeli police by Palestinians who had suffered damage to their olive groves between 2005 and 2013 were closed without indictment.
caption: Graffiti reading "Gas the Arabs! JDL" reportedly sprayed by settlers on the Qurtuba girls school in Hebron[61][62][63]
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