Settlers accused of stealing olives from Palestinian crop ahead of harvest

A Palestinian farmer in the northern West Bank on Tuesday accused nearby settlers of stealing thousands of olives from 42 of his trees just ahead of the annual harvest.

Radi Attiani from the town of Yasuf told the Yesh Din rights group that he discovered the theft, as well as the sabotage of several of his trees, while touring his property. His land is located adjacent to the Rehelim settlement and the Tapuah West outpost.

This was the second time Attiani said his crop had been targeted in recent months. Last July, 52 trees belonging to him and his brother were chopped down in another attack he blamed on settlers.

Attiani said he filed a complaint after the first incident but had yet to do so again after discovering the latest apparent theft on Tuesday morning.

A police spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a query on whether a probe had been opened into the trees destroyed in July.

A Samaria Regional Council official also said she wasn’t aware of the incident. She condemned violence against Palestinians but maintained there was no proof that Israelis were behind the theft. Moreover, she pointed out that Palestinians have been responsible for setting fire to dozens of acres of settler lands in recent months.

The alleged theft came just days before the annual olive harvest. More than 100,000 Palestinian families rely to some extent on the income they generate from their olives and some 18 percent of Palestinian agricultural production comes from olives, according to statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The harvest is a frequent site of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers that the Israel Defense Forces says it seeks to prevent.

Palestinian media and rights groups have reported multiple cases of Israelis interfering with the annual harvest, attacking Palestinians, stealing olives and uprooting trees.

In many places, farmers say they face intimidation and violence from nearby extremist settlers and call in help from both foreign and Israeli supporters, including Jewish rabbis, to protect them and their crops.

Some of the incidents are seen as attempts at revenge following Palestinian attacks on Israelis, even if the farmers targeted were not involved.

In other cases, rights groups say, there is little motivation other than just to destroy Palestinian property.

Israeli settlers charge that their crops have also been damaged by Palestinians, including one incident in May 2018 when around 1,000 grapevines were destroyed.

More than 7,000 Palestinian-owned trees have been vandalized so far this year, according to the United Nations.

Of 97 complaints about settler attacks against Palestinian trees, followed up Yesh Din, none have so far led to an indictment of a suspect.

AFP and Adam Rasgon contributed to this report.