So far, no evidence has ever been found for "settlers" destroying Arab olive trees. Two years ago, Jewish Fatah-supporter Yoel Marshak was caught by police destroying Arab olive trees, apparently in an effort to frame "settlers". Three days ago, the IDF alerted by "settlers" caught Arabs destroying the olive trees of another Arab.

...and then they poisoned ALL of our the wells, and, and they used the blood of little boys to make Matzos(the tasty salt and garlic kind)and then they caused fluctuation of the markets(the super & the stock kind) and then they ravished ALL of the blond haired Shiksas in the Austria-Hungarian empire. Well, maybe not all. But a lot. And then they wrote a whole bunch of irritating "talkbacks" and then I really got mad.

OK everyone, before you jump to believe every word of this report - which is HERESAY please remember, if you dont already know, that in the past many olives trees have been deliberately vandalized by Arabs to provoke anti "settler" activity. Another point, Kedumim is a wholly Jewish town, and the sparse olive trees around Kfar Kadum nearby are a different matter. If an owner of 155 olive trees is going to harvest from only 55 trees, please, those readers who are of a practical turn of mind, remember how many kilos of olives each tree gives, and how many hundreds of pairs of hands would be need to harvest from "only" 55 trees. Whole families turn out for the olive harvest, take all day at it, and not all the trees are stripped every year.

This has been the case in all the previous times this issue has been raised. Jew plant, arabs destroy. If you doubt this, look at Gush Katif. What was once barren desert was turned into one of the premiere places for produce and flower production in the world. After the Jews were forced to leave, the arabs reduced it to barren desert again. Case closed.

For: a) If you aproove that West Bank is Israel, Palestinians are GUESTS in Israel, therefor, they are subject to Torah Laws regarding guests. b) Even if you reject them as guests and do not apply the mentioned laws, you STILL have no right to destroy their olive trees, since it is written that even when you conquer towns, you will leave threes untouched! There are great chances that YNET will not publish this, but - it is not seculars that invoke the wrath of G-d on us... It is "religious" who daven publicly 3 times a day and yet in the same time do hideus deeds like these, DIRECTLY OPPOSITE to Torah. For it is said that their prayer will be turned to their curse.

Nothing

"Members of the security team in Yitzhar, in Samaria, spotted a group of Arab men entering an Arab olive grove near the Lehava neighborhood of the community Saturday morning. IDF soldiers were notified and arrived at the scene to question the men and ensure that they did not pose a danger to residents of Yitzhar. The soldiers were surprised to see that the group was busy cutting down olive trees. The men were cutting the trees in a "violent manner," soldiers said, explaining that they tried to show that there was damage to the trees instead of simply pruning them. They were apparently planning to accuse Jewish residents of Yitzhar of cutting down the Arab-owned trees, repeating accusations that have been made in recent years. The owner of the trees was not present and had not notified the army that he was planning to prune his grove, which Palestinian Authority farmers near Jewish towns are required to do."

by the army cutting down these same olive trees. Since they were caught ín the act , why is Ynet blaming Jews?

Unlike other species, olive trees do not yield fruit each and every year, perhaps every other year or so. Therefore it is quite possible that out of the 155 trees this man claims to own, only 55 can be harvested. Also, if these trees are 40 or 50 years old, couldn't it be possible that Jews planted them after the Six Day War? At least the 40-year-old ones Just asking ...

Taqiyya - Islamic deception against hated non-Muslims is taught in Islam. It is a way of life and practiced extensively. Every year Arab Muslims prune olive trees and every year the Muslims lie and claim Jews cut down the trees. The Muslims also get help from their dhimmi, leftist friends. Every one of us are accountable to G-D and His Holy Laws. G-D commanded: YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS

I'm continually amazed that the Jews can so blithely ignore reality and rationalize the behavior of other Jews no matter how criminal. Do you not have any shame?

From Arutz 7 few days ago. Members of the security team in Yitzhar, in Samaria, spotted a group of Arab men entering an Arab olive grove near the Lehava neighborhood of the community Saturday morning. IDF soldiers were notified and arrived at the scene to question the men and ensure that they did not pose a danger to residents of Yitzhar. The soldiers were surprised to see that the group was busy cutting down olive trees. The men were cutting the trees in a "violent manner," soldiers said, explaining that they tried to show that there was damage to the trees instead of simply pruning them. They were apparently planning to accuse Jewish residents of Yitzhar of cutting down the Arab-owned trees, repeating accusations that have been made in recent years. The owner of the trees was not present and had not notified the army that he was planning to prune his grove, which Palestinian Authority farmers near Jewish towns are required to do. Residents of Yitzhar said that Arabs and Israeli leftists had framed Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria for destroying olive trees many times in recent years. In one case, leftist activist Yoel Marshak was caught in an Arab olive grove holding a saw, they said. Despite the proof that the alleged attacks on olive trees were faked, and despite the fact that no Jewish resident of Judea and Samaria has been convicted of such an attack, the media continues to accept Arab claims and blame Jews for damage done to Arab-owned trees, residents of Yitzhar said. They called on the media to avoid blind acceptance of the claims made by local Arabs. Following Saturday's incident, Arab residents of the village of Burin near Yitzhar accused residents of Yitzhar of attacking them as they attempted to harvest olives. Infiltration Foiled near Har Bracha In the nearby town of Har Bracha, three Arab men were spotted trying to infiltrate the town on Saturday afternoon. The three had arrived in the area with a group of Arabs who told soldiers they were villagers who had come to harvest olives. Soldiers chased the would-be infiltrators to the village of Khalil, south of Shechem, where they caught two men suspected of involvement in the incident. The two were arrested and taken to security services for questioning. Ynet dai kvar im h'shkarim.

Even without a ruler or compass, it's hard not to get the impression that the extended process of delegitimizing the settlers - which leads to genuine hatred of them - is hitting a peak. The left wing and the media have now labeled the settlers, as a group, as the abhorred Other that people are allowed to smack around. There are settlers who break the law, just as there are lawbreakers who are Palestinian, ultra-Orthodox, politicians, Druze, Israeli Arabs, left-wing anarchists and others. The problem arises when the law becomes a way of marking an entire population as illegitimate. More about correctness : http://xrl.us/bi5da

This fake story has already been exposed in other media.

He just cant help himself and should be sued for libel! Shame on you YNet for printing lies and misinformation that Ali seems to print constantly.

Rabbis for human rights is a pro-arab, pro-Jew killing org. The picture is obviously of a tree that died from disease, not beiong chopped down and it died more than five years ago to be weathered so badly. The members of rabbis for human rights call themselves rabbis but most are reform converts with no real Jewish maternal heritage.

Ali Waked.

Only a few days ago Arabs were caught destroying their own olive trees by the IDF, probably with the intent of blaming Jews. This was not the first time leftist activists or Arabs have been caught vandalising trees with the intent of blaming settlers so I hope they will forgive me if I don't believe them without evidence.

despite the number of kilos of olives that get picked, producing olive oil from those many kilos is in itself a tedious task. not to mention, rain has been pretty low this past year which decreased olive oil product. a helping hand is highly appreciated from olive pickers since they have to rise early and return late and the sun and all. speaking about those "only 55 trees" that you weigh and compare, i wonder if the family is running low in their stored olive oil and olive supply? i wonder at whether the family is in a rather poor state of financial means and has to sell some of their oil. its their piece of land and they have to be policed down to the number of trees that they can benefit from? thank god that they dont have a house there. the "hundreds" that you talk of is a gross exaggeration which objectives are shady. why should an olive picker waste time on picking trees that have relatively few olives on it in the first place? when one has done a crime, i doubt that they would go bragging about it-how are you so sure that the culprit wasnt a settler? with the settler activity up there in the article, and the recent sunday blockage by them its easy to evolve into this state.

In the picture thoughtfully provided by Rabbis for Human Rights for Everyone but JEWS, there is exactly 1olive tree in view for miles around. Looks like it was dead before being cut down. The photo proves nothing and is incredibly suspicious. The Palis probably cut it down themselves as we know happened recently.

Funny how this newspaper almost always has stories about how the horrible evil Jewish settlers are constantly victimizing the poor,innocent,oppresssed, peaceloving Palestinians by uprooting their sacred olive trees. Yet you never read a word about how the Palestinians are constantly trying to murder and maim Jews by throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli cars every single day in the West Bank.

It Very saddening to read that someone needs a permit to pick olives off their own trees. Does this law apply to all agriculture? Do Israelis need permits? Is there any compassion left in anyone's heart over there or has everyone's heart been made hard beyond repair?

Each year the illegal Israeli settlers in the Palestinian WB destroy more and more Palestinian olive groves. Under the cover of darkness these cowardly settlers cut down and mutilate olive trees knowing that they are destroying a family's livelihood. Yet these illegal settlers will claim that they doing the work of 'G-d'. You could spend a whole day on YouTube watching clips of settler violence against innocent Palestinian civilians eg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKwDrWFLrGk&feature=related In truth these illegal settlers are nothing more than violent armed thugs who use their religion as an excuse to attack innocent civilians and destroy their land. They rear their children to hate both Palestinians and secular Israeli society. These children will of course grow up to be violent religious nutters just like their parents. "Israeli terrorist" is the only correct term to use in relation to these morally sick people.

Well put. I would call it collective-denial. Apparently some people (as displayed here on this tread) will totally deny any wrong-doing even if this means dismissing the actual facts. The Goldstone Report Deniers are a classic example. They will try and spin an alternative reality where everyone else (except for themselves) is to blame. I think that this collective-denial stems from a deep rooted insecurity and paranoia coupled with an inability to accept responsibility or any immoral behaviour. For example the violent and racist actions of illegal Israeli settlers in the WB has long been documented yet not one 'pro-Israeli' poster on this thread can bring themselves to admit as much. Maybe they are scared that if they did (admit reality) they would be labelled a 'self-hating Jew' or other such nonsense. It is sad really that so many people can be so removed from realism.