IDF Soldiers 'Protect' Settlers From Palestinian Olives
This annual ritual of violence is framed as mere harassment, as if Palestinian families aren't losing their livelihood, their heritage, and their future, year after predictable year. The 'settlers' aren't rogue actors; they are beneficiaries of Israeli government policy, protected by the Israeli military, on land stolen piece by piece since 1948, intensifying after 1967. These are not isolated
incidents; UN numbers show over 6,500 settler attacks on Palestinians since 2004, often with army complicity. While Al Jazeera responsibly highlights the ongoing violence, US media outlets often default to euphemisms like 'territorial disputes.' One might wonder how many olive trees must be torched, how many farmers beaten, before this is called what it is: a sustained, militarized campaign of
ethnic cleansing against a civilian population, making their existence economically untenable on their own land. And our elected officials, backed by organizations like AIPAC who spent over $10 million in 2023 lobbying Congress, remain conspicuously silent, occasionally offering a carefully worded 'concern' that changes nothing.