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Settlers: Palestinians vandalizing Jewish farmers' property
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Jewish, West Bank, farmer 

West Bank settlers say there has been a recent spate of Palestinian vandalism on property belonging to Jewish farmers, and an Haaretz investigation has found evidence of arson, sabotage of equipment and destruction of crops.

The farmers claim that the police are not designating their complaints as high priority, because they do not fall under the rubric of "hostile terrorist activity."

Settlers put the damage from vandalism in the tens of millions of shekels for which they are not compensated, because state authorities recognize only damage sustained in "a hostile act against Israel."
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The police maintain that it treats equally Palestinians and Israelis who damage agricultural produce.

A new report by a settler civil rights group cites several examples of damage to Jewish farmers' property. Under the heading, "Who will protect my olive tree?" the report describes the torching of 900 dunams of grazing ground, a stable, and 30 pomegranate trees belonging to Yehuda Cohen of Bat Ayin. Shamai Pozak at Ofra had young saplings chopped down, tons of grapevines destroyed before the harvest, and irrigation pipes torched. Moshe Kedem of Pnei Kedem had 500 olive tree saplings uprooted.

At Sde Calev, in the Hebron Hills region, arson consumed more than 100 cherry trees, and assorted buildings and storage sheds were set on fire. Just recently, another 400 grapevines were uprooted.

Shlomi Cohen's vineyard in the Dolev region was uprooted four times, which finally prompted the Shin Bet security service to investigate. Suspects were subsequently arrested, but the Shin Bet does not ordinarily get involved in these cases.

Israeli police hardly ever enters Arab villages in the West Bank, and as with cases of agricultural theft within Israel, the moment the stolen property makes it into the nearby Arab village, its owners usually have no chance of getting it back.

When farmers occasionally have conducted their own investigations and located their property in the surrounding villages, the police refrained from entering the villages.

An exception was the case of Yehuda Cohen, who persuaded the police to intervene by threatening to go into the town of Dahariya himself to retrieve his stolen horses.

Settlers complain that irrigation systems are prime targets for repeated vandalism by Arab shepherds, who slice the pipes to water their flocks, and by Palestinian farmers or others who tap into these systems for free water.

The new report lists a series of cases in which "Israeli and international leftist groups were clearly involved in incidents of rioting that damaged agricultural plots of Jews in Judea and Samaria."

This claim proved correct in at least two of the cases Haaretz checked. For example, in the course of a protest march by leftists, anarchists and Arabs on August 22, dozens broke into Shlomi Cohen's vineyard at Neria and uprooted some 5,000 vine saplings.

On October 17, a left-wing activist was caught along with Arabs from the West Bank in the act of setting several fires around the illegal outpost Havat Gilad.

There are indications of leftists' involvement in several other cases, and police sources confirm the matter, but no suspects have been arrested.

A majority of police files opened following complaints by Jewish farmers are closed on the ground of "perpetrator unknown," and most of the handful of cases that result in arrests are usually closed for lack of evidence. Sometimes cases are closed for "lack of public interest."

According to the report, investigations in these cases sometimes take an unexpected turn, when Arabs under interrogation for committing terrorist attacks reveal they were also involved in sabotaging Jewish farmers' property.

The report claims that nothing is being done to deter "potential Arab offenders," and that police officers respond slowly to complaints of vandalism. Furthermore, police do not devote intelligence resources to dealing with this issue, nor generally "makes use of the Shin Bet's intelligence operation."

A police spokesman said in response "the actions the police take against Palestinian and Israeli law offenders who damage the property or produce of farmers on either side makes no distinction between the sides."

He said that every complaint is dealt with, including by intelligence means if necessary.

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  1.   Had it been other way round there would be 100`s of angry posts 05:24  |  Rob 20/11/07
  2.   Push back murderous arab violent occupation 06:01  |  Joseph E . 20/11/07
  3.   Leftist State 06:21  |  Jack 20/11/07
  4.   Why isn`t this a headline? 06:37  |  JD 20/11/07
  5.   Settlers finally get a taste of their own medicine. 06:45  |  Maki 20/11/07
  6.   Settler as victim 06:50  |  Natallie Durson 20/11/07
  7.   To Haaretz 07:54  |  Aline 20/11/07
  8.   Long overdue article 08:02  |  john 20/11/07
  9.   Was there any provocation? 08:06  |  JW 20/11/07
  10.   `Settlers: Palestinians vandalizing Jewish farmers` property` 08:25  |  Colin Wright 20/11/07
  11.   Palestinians are those rejected by Arab States 08:33  |  Terez 20/11/07
  12.   context 08:37  |  tm 20/11/07
  13.   Stolen land, JW? 08:40  |  Livio 20/11/07
  14.   Understandable indeed..... 08:46  |  Esther 20/11/07
  15.   Damage in Agriculture in Occupied territiries 09:11  |  Jan van Mil 20/11/07
  16.   2nd try: Had it been other way round... 09:15  |  Rob 20/11/07
  17.   i shrug 09:18  |  crocus 20/11/07
  18.   Good development 09:21  |  Chabba Wodini 20/11/07
  19.   JW The real estate is legal 09:24  |  Rob 20/11/07
  20.   settlers are thieves. They live on land that belongs not to them 09:42  |  Karni 20/11/07
  21.   TRASHING Synagogues is very fashionable. 09:49  |  PETER SM 20/11/07
  22.   Jews can do 10:10  |  Dav 20/11/07
  23.   Tzfonit and Esther where ARE YOU 10:11  |  GABE1 20/11/07
  24.   Arabs are thieves. They steal Jewish property and goods 10:13  |  Dod Moshe 20/11/07
  25.   ESTHER #14 10:19  |  GABE1 20/11/07
  26.   Settlers do not legally own land in the West Bank 10:37  |  Tarik 20/11/07
  27.   If the day will come when Israeli "settlers" will be willing..... 11:01  |  Swiss (Dino) 20/11/07
  28.   Re Gabe1 #23 11:03  |  Esther 20/11/07
  29.   Come home! 11:18  |  Esther 20/11/07
  30.   nothing has changed in 90 years ! 11:33  |  victor hardman 20/11/07
  31.   #27 yes dino gets it right for once 11:36  |  victor hardman 20/11/07
  32.   How to react to these acts 11:51  |  Afrikaner 20/11/07
  33.   #23 gabe the Meandering Masogonist 11:56  |  Ari ben Yisrael 20/11/07
  34.   TAREQ Where are the Pal. title deeds to the West Bank? 12:07  |  PETER SM 20/11/07
  35.   Chabba Wodini.Mau Mau in Arabic?Child sacrificer hiding behind 12:10  |  PETER S.M. 20/11/07
  36.   afrikaner 12:23  |  jj burke 20/11/07
  37.   # 31 If "victor" thinks that Dino`s got it right..... 12:29  |  Swiss (Dino) 20/11/07
  38.   Olmert, a lier 12:34  |  Dav 20/11/07
  39.   SETTLERS HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS...PALS PAYING THEM BACK? 12:39  |  TrippleJump 20/11/07
  40.   THE FARMS BELONGED TO THE PALESTINIANS... 12:40  |  Marcel 20/11/07
  41.   Maki: Arabs did this to Jews before there was an Israel 12:55  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  42.   c`mon tm 12:58  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  43.   crocus 13:02  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  44.   Esther 13:04  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  45.   #15 Jan Van Mill, I agree with your call on Settlers to get out 13:11  |  Haham me Bat Yam 20/11/07
  46.   RE: Settler as Victim 13:15  |  Nani 20/11/07
  47.   Turnabout is always fair play 13:25  |  Mark Lincoln 20/11/07
  48.   #29 You disgust me 13:29  |  Ilan 20/11/07
  49.   TRPPLE JUMP What was the excuse before the settlers? Payback? 13:30  |  PETER S .M. 20/11/07
  50.   Better print out this one from Haaretz,no one will believe me 13:38  |  nina 20/11/07
  51.   Not long ago. Settler kill Pals. 13:42  |  Dav 20/11/07
  52.   Blame Israel for the suzied killings 14:01  |  Dav 20/11/07
  53.   Hello Esther, are you sure? 14:02  |  Tzfonit 20/11/07
  54.   Dav One Jewish example thousands of Arab examples 14:04  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  55.   Re Settler Babe #44 14:12  |  Esther 20/11/07
  56.   Cry me a river! 14:13  |  Paulo 20/11/07
  57.   Esther @28 14:13  |  GABE1 20/11/07
  58.   settler- babe in mind at least 14:15  |  crocodile tears 20/11/07
  59.   Esther # 29 14:15  |  GABE1 20/11/07
  60.   # 53 Tzfonit 14:21  |  Swiss (Dino) 20/11/07
  61.   Durson #6 14:25  |  jjvanka 20/11/07
  62.   Unnamed Latinist 14:28  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  63.   Peace Esther 14:33  |  Settler Babe 20/11/07
  64.   Re Tzfonit #53 14:41  |  Esther 20/11/07
  65.   Dino, I was not clear 14:45  |  Tzfonit 20/11/07
  66.   Settler Babe = Terrorist 14:53  |  #1YANK 20/11/07
  67.   Re Ilan #48 14:57  |  Esther 20/11/07
  68.   Re Gabe1 #57 15:08  |  Esther 20/11/07
  69.   Re Babe #63 15:27  |  Esther 20/11/07
  70.   #57 GABE1 15:42  |  tbora 20/11/07
  71.   settler babe(nice touch)-quick thinking 15:52  |  k`neh-vossem 20/11/07
  72.   Natalie Durston the murderer