Arabs, Jews clash in Samaria during olive harvest

Dozens of Palestinians, accompanied by extreme leftists, came very close to a nearby Jewish community. A clash ensued.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

With the permission of the IDF and accompanied by the extreme-leftist organization Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), dozens of Palestinians from the northern Samaria town of Huwara arrived Sunday morning at the Jewish community of Yitzhar, supposedly to harvest olives.

Residents of Yitzhar came to protest their arrival. As reported by Arutz-7, Uriah Cohen, head of Yitzhar’s secretariat, pointed out that the olive harvest has been used as a cover for many terrorist acts over the years. “Unfortunately,” he said, “it seems that the security establishment is yielding to the unacceptable and dangerous pressure of extreme leftist organizations.”

Six years ago, an Arab “olive farmer” near Itamar took advantage of the harvest to take note of the town’s security arrangements. Later, he later returned with a cousin and murdered Ehud and Ruth Fogel and three of their six children as they lay sleeping in their beds – one of them just three months old.

According to Sunday’s RHR statement, the Israelis “attacked” the Palestinians and “set fire to the orchard in Hawara, next to Yizhar.”

An IDF spokesman said a fight broke out, security personnel separated the two sides, and the Palestinians were quickly allowed to continue picking olives.

The Israel Police, which also had officers at the scene, did not make any arrests. “There was no attack, but rather it was an argument. The IDF broke it up,” a spokesperson said.