Harvesting Olives or Palestinian Land? Why Not Both?
Al Jazeera reports Israeli forces and settlers are targeting Palestinian olive harvesters in the West Bank, citing escalating attacks during the harvest season. While the article notes Israel's ongoing annexation efforts, it understates a critical, historical pattern: the army often provides cover for these settler actions. This isn't a new development; NGOs like B'Tselem have documented such
orchestrated violence for decades, revealing a systematic process of land seizure that parallels the state's military occupation. One might wonder if there’s an unspoken policy allowing settlers to act as paramilitary extensions, doing the dirty work while the IDF 'maintains order'—order for whom, precisely? How many olive trees must be torched, how many farmers beaten, before this 'conflict' is
accurately labeled—not a dispute over agriculture, but a state-sanctioned land grab, funded, in part, by generous US aid packages that never seem to question such 'collateral damage'?