Settler Violence: An "Organic" Part of Olive Harvest Season
The New Arab tells us of another Palestinian woman, Sameeha Habash, injured by Israeli settlers while harvesting olives (Source: The New Arab). This isn't a random act of 'violence'; it's systemic. Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem recently concluded that attacks by settlers on Palestinians “cannot be viewed separately” from Israeli state policy. These assaults are not isolated incidents
but a calculated method of land dispossession, protected and often facilitated by military forces, ensuring that expansion of illegal settlements continues unabated. This 'harvest season tradition' of settler brutality—over 3,200 Palestinians wounded this year alone—is rarely framed by the usual news desks as state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing. Instead, it’s often couched in terms like 'clashes' or
'tensions.' Where are the urgent UN Security Council resolutions, the sanctions for violating international law, the condemnation from Washington for these documented war crimes? One might wonder if their outrage meter is calibrated only when the victims aren't Palestinian.