Monday 21 February 2011

Israelis chop down 220 olive trees envisioning settlement expansion

[ 20/02/2011 - 05:39 PM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers in the West Bank were certainly encouraged after the U.S. struck down a resolution that would have thwarted settlement activity for good. In Nablus, Yash Adam settlers attacked a Palestinian-owned farm noon Sunday, chopping down hundreds of olive trees. Other settlers beat up the night before entire families in the Jordan Valley.

Jewish settlers from Yash Adam infiltrated an olive grove between the villages of Qasra and Doma south of Nablus and used saws to cut down 220 trees under protection of other settlers armed with machine guns and automatic weapons.

Locals said the act was aimed at expanding and thus linking isolated settlement outposts by taking Palestinian land.

Palestinian parliamentarians from the Hamas bloc called on the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas to shoulder its responsibilities and protect the Palestinian people and their property from settler mischief.

In a statement they said the attacks were supported by the U.S. veto used to strike down a resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank as illegal. They said continued peace talks with Israel were also to blame.

One night earlier, Jews from the Maskiot settlement stormed the Wadi al-Halwa area and assaulted locals.

They threatened to kill the family of Sati Daraghima if they did not evacuate the land and assaulted his wife, witnesses said.

The assailants apparently had sights set on annexing that area to their settlement.

Earlier settlers flooded the area's streets shouting anti-Arab slogans and demanding they leave and not graze in the region.

The incident was witnessed by the Israel army, which has mapped the area as a closed military zone.

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