Several Israeli activists were wounded on Friday in an attack allegedly carried out by settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Footage of the attack showed masked men with clubs, sticks and rocks beating the activists and setting a car alight in Burin, near Nablus in the northern West Bank.
Local media reported that four members of Rabbis for Human Rights and the Rabbis for Human Rights, there to help local Palestinians to plant olive trees, were transferred to hospital in Israel.
Olive trees in the West Bank have become a flashpoint of tension as some settler groups seek to violently prevent Palestinians from accessing their fields or harvesting crops.
Trees have been uprooted, set on fire and damaged in a bid to destroy livelihoods and local Palestinians’ link to the area.
“Activists from RHR and the Harvest Coalition have been standing in solidarity with Palestinian farmers, assisting them and being a voice for peace, and a vision of Judaism that values human rights for 20 years,” said Avi Dabush, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights.
“Their [the settler’s] violence [is] directed first of all at Palestinians and to anyone who refuses to accept their version of messianic Jewish superiority that they seek to impose,” he added.
Mr Dabush called on the government to “bring these terrorists to justice”.
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A Palestinian man picks olives during harvest season near Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Reuters -
Olive trees are considered both a revered cultural emblem and an economic necessity for Palestinians. Reuters -
A Palestinian woman sits under an olive tree as others pick its olives in Jerusalem. Reuters -
Palestinian farmer Ibrahim Amar, 64, stands by the Seam Zone in Qaffin, in the occupied West Bank. Seam zones are sections of Palestinian land that have been designated by Israel as closed military areas. Tanya Habjouqa / Noor for The National -
Palestinian farmer Mohammed Khasib, 65, by the Seam Zone in Qaffin. Tanya Habjouqa / Noor for The National -
Israel has erected walls and gates to separate Palestinian farmers from their land. Tanya Habjouqa / Noor for The National -
A Palestinian man outside a seam zone. Access to these Palestinian areas is controlled by an Israeli permit system. Tanya Habjouqa / Noor for The National -
Palestinian graffiti on a stand used by Israeli soldiers in the seam zone in Qaffin. It reads in Arabic: 'Palestine, Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem is ours'. Tanya Habjouqa / Noor for The National -
Young men and children hang around the seam zone to see if they will be allowed to help their family members, who have permits to access their farms in Qaffin, harvest their olives. Tanya Habjouqa / Noor for The National -
Activists from the Rabbis for Human Rights organisation help Palestinian farmers to harvest their olive trees near Nablus. AFP -
Palestinians walk alongside Israel's separation barrier after receiving special permission to harvest their olive trees, near Bait A'wa village, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Hebron. AFP -
Israeli soldiers stand guard as volunteers and demonstrators help Palestinian farmers to pick their olives next to the Israeli outpost of Evitar, near Nablus. The volunteers picked the olives in solidarity with Palestinians, whose land was confiscated by Israeli settlers. EPA -
Palestinians extinguish a fire in a field around the village of Burin, south of Nablus, on June 29, 2021. AFP -
The field was set ablaze by Israelis from the settlement of Yitzhar, according to witnesses from the village council. AFP
