Illegal Israeli settlers burn Palestinian fields in fourth day of violence

Date: 03 / 06 / 2009  Time:  20:54
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Illegal Israeli settlers threw stones, blocked roads, and set fire to Palestinian farmland in the fourth straight day of violence they say is in reaction to their government's decision to dismantle a handful of unauthorized outposts.

According to Israeli media reports, Israel’s Civil Administration alerted Palestinian firefighters to the blaze, which was set near the West Bank city of Nablus. The fire was reportedly extinguished and no one was injured.

Settlers also returned to the sites of two outposts that were earlier dismantled, Maoz Esther and Ramat Migron, and erected two new outposts close by.

In response to these incidents, Palestinians reportedly hurled stones at the settlers near the settlement of Havat Gilad.

Settler activist Meir Bartler told Israel’s Army Radio that the settlers would "not yield to security forces," according to the newspaper Haaretz.

"Not only will we renew and even double the construction in Maoz Esther and Ramat Migron in response to the evacuation, but by today new outposts will come up all across Judea and Samaria, and specifically in the Binyamin region."

The violence began on Sunday when settlers began a campaign against the planned removal of unsanctioned outposts. Six Palestinian men were hospitalized in Nablus when settlers brutally beat them. On Tuesday a Palestinian teenager stabbed an Israeli soldier at a military checkpoint in an apparent reaction to the attacks.

The Israeli government is removing outposts in an apparent gesture to the US, which wants a freeze on all settlement construction, government sanctioned or otherwise. Israel has rejected a total freeze as “unreasonable.”

Settlers torch more Palestinian farmland near Nablus

Date: 02 / 06 / 2009  Time:  17:09
Nablus – Ma’an –

Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to more than 50 dunums (50,000 square meters) of Palestinian-owned farmland south of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Ghassan Dughlus, a Palestinian official monitoring settler activity in the northern West Bank told Ma’an that settlers lit the fires in the Hariq area near the village of Sarra.

“The Nablus fire brigade and the Palestinian Civil Defense arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire. The fire destroyed more than 50 dunums planted with fruitful olive trees,” Dughlus said.

The arson comes a day after settlers set fire to large swaths of Palestinian land in the Nablus area, blocked roads, threw stones and assaulted Palestinian commuters, putting six men in the hospital with serious injuries.

Dughlus said that those attacks torched 1350 olive trees in the villages of Asira Al-Qibliya, Tell, Huwwara, Habet and Burin, in addition to 280 dunums of wheat and barley.