Britain and Germany block 'Palestinian' membership in International Olive Council
Britain and Germany have combined to block the 'Palestinians' from joining the International Olive Council as a 'member state.'
In April, as part of the peace talks with Israel, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas promised not to take unilateral action in joining international bodies.
Just recently Nabil Shaath, a senior official in the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO), threatened that his organization was
ready to join international organizations as
the talks have failed to deliver results in the course of 5 months. On
Friday Shaath emphasized that the PA is only remaining in the talks to free all 104 terrorists whose release was promised as a "gesture."
European diplomatic sources told Haaretz that German and
British representatives blocked the application, noting that if the PA
were to join the international organization it could threaten the peace
talks. US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to return to Israel next week to keep pushing peace talks.
...
Jews in Judea and Samaria have long argued that Arabs in the region
use the olive harvest as a pretext to prepare attacks on the Jewish
communities. Often PA Arabs insist on entering Jewish communities to
pick olives under IDF protection.
PA residents often prey on the ignorance of Western journalists, who
do not know that hacking off olive trees' branches is a token part of
the harvesting process. As such, olive harvest season has become a
breeding ground for false claims of vandalism.
Video footage
from October showed Arabs gathering near Itamar to ostensibly gather
olives, but secretly filming Jewish homes, while one Arab man made a
threatening throat-cutting gesture with his machete.
In March Itamar was the site of a massacre in which two Arabs snuck into a home and violently murdered 5 members of the Fogel family, including a 2 month old baby.
And we're supposed to trust the 'Palestinians' benign intentions?
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton picked olives on Thursday to identify with the 'Palestinians.'
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton joined an Arab
olive harvest on Thursday. Ashton picked olives in the town of Ras
Karkar in the Binyamin region.
Ras Karkar is part of Area C, the
Judea and Samaria territory that is under Israeli military and
administrative control according to Israel-PA agreements.
PA
Prime Minister Salad Fayyad said Ashton’s visit gives support to his
efforts to end Israeli presence in the area. “Ashton’s visit here is
testimony to this territory is not contested as Israel claims,” he
argued.
“Maybe the visit will help us move to full Palestinian sovereignty” in the town, local residents said.
During
her visit Ashton told the residents that the EU believes in a
“two-state solution” that would see Judea and Samaria become another
Arab state. She praised Fayyad for his efforts to establish PA
institutions.
That must be why they're getting that Nobel peace prize....
Caught red-handed: Arabs caught chopping down their own olive trees (video evidence)
"Caught red-handed" - Volunteers from the Shomron
Settlers Council today (Monday) filmed Arabs and a foreign activist from the
extreme Left cutting down trunks of olive trees and branches next to the
settlement of Elon Moreh, to create a provocation.
As previously mentioned, just yesterday the Shomron
Settlers Council and the Shomron Regional Council came out with a request to
Shomron residents to put cameras in their vehicles in order to document
provocations by Arabs and extreme Leftist activists during the olive harvest
season.
Due to the increase during previous years in
provocations organized by extremist Leftist activists from Israel and from
abroad, as well as by Arabs of the area, in preparation for the olive harvest,
the Shomron Settlers Council, together with the Shomron Regional Council, have
organized a photography course for the residents and Council
volunteers.
And indeed, this afternoon, already in the first
days of the harvest season, two volunteers from the Shomron Settlers Council
caught "red-handed", some Arabs and another man who joined them, likely a
foreign Leftist activist, as they were cutting down trunks and branches of olive
trees adjacent to the settlement of Elon Moreh, just a short distance from the
town and close to homes.
The Arabs and the Leftist extremist were sawing
through the trunks and branches and leaving them near the cut off trunks in an
area near the settlement's homes, as well as in another location near the
entrance to Elon Moreh.
Council volunteers photographed them in the act and
called the police.
Chairman of the Shomron Settlers Council Benny
Katzover said: "Just yesterday we called on the public to equip themselves with
cameras in order to document provocations, and already today a provocation was
filmed, the act of uprooting olive trees in real time. It's clear to everyone
that if the alert volunteers had not recorded the provocation in real time, the
whole world would have shouted and condemned the settlers and the State of
Israel."
In the wake of the incident, Shomron Regional
Council head Gershon Mesika called for acting agressively against the ones
staging the uprooting of the olive trees and to distance the provocateurs of the
extreme Left from the area during the olive harvest season:
"The olive harvest season in recent years has
turned into the provocateur's season. In light of the extreme Left's
provocations during the olive harvest in past years, the settlement enterprise
has invested much effort, in coordination with the IDF, to prevent extreme
Leftist organizations and the Palestinian Authority from taking advantage of the
season to cause provocations and take other actions. I call on the Security
services to be alert, to understand that these are sequences of events whereby
most of them take place when activists from the extreme Left, both from Israel
and from abroad, are in the area. I call on the Security services to distance
from the area, the extreme Leftists planning these provocations and thus prevent
these incidents from happening and to allow the harvest season to finish
quietly."
The 'human rights' organizations are constantly blaming Israel for interfering with the 'Palestinian' olive harvest and chopping down trees.
Outrageous: Family members of Fogel killers allowed to pick olives in Itamar
Family members of Hakim and Amjad Awad from the village of Awarta were allowed to pick olives on Sunday within the boundaries of the Jewish village of Itamar. Six months ago, Hakim and Amjad Awad stole into Itamar on a Friday night and murdered Udi and Ruti Fogel and three of their children HY"D (May God Avenge their blood). The Awad cousins gathered important intelligence information about Itamar during last year's olive harvest. On Sunday, 12-year old Tamar Fogel, the eldest daughter of Udi and Ruti and one of three surviving Fogel children, could only look on helplessly as the Awad clan taunted Itamar residents.
Settlers in Itamar were outraged Sunday morning after Palestinians from Awarta arrived in Itamar for their annual olive harvest in the settlement. According to the settlers, among the Palestinians who arrived in Itamar were the family members of Amjad and Hakim Awad who brutally stabbed and murdered five members of the Fogel family six months ago.
The settlers claimed that the Palestinians shouted "We'll Fogel you" and drew their fingers across their necks indicating slaughter.
Dozens of women and children from Itamar protested against the move, including Tamar Fogel who lost her parents and three siblings in the heinous terror attack. Several settlers threw rocks at Palestinians, one was lightly wounded. Security forces separated the two sides.
According to Itamar settlers, during last year's harvest, Hakim Awad entered the settlement and gathered information ahead of the massacre. "This is an abominable case of insensitivity," they said, "In previous years yeshiva students harvested the olives for the Palestinians and transferred them to Awarta's residents free of charge.
"After intervention from left-wing activists we were forced to allow the village residents to carry out their own harvest, but it is clear that with a little bit of thought and creativity we could have found a solution." The settlers claim that this is an "absurd situation where the family of the killer harvests olives meters away from where he butchered an entire family."
...
The Palestinians who arrived on the settlement accompanied by Police Special Forces and Border Guard officers claimed that they weren't close relatives of the murderers. "There are famers from the Awad family among the harvesters," admitted Jamal Kavarik, an Awarta resident, "but they weren't closely related to the murderers. The Awad clan in Awarta is numerous."
He attested to the fact that the IDF arrived at the scene in the early hours of the morning to secure the harvest and prevent altercations between the Palestinians and the settlers. "When we arrived on the field 15 settlers came down from Itamar and started throwing rocks at the farmers. I called the Coordination and Liaison Administration and told them and the IDF arrived at the scene."
Itamar residents had warned last year against allowing 'Palestinians' from Awarta to enter their town.
Will there - God forbid - be another terror attack?
In an email, David HaIvri, director of the Shomron Liaison Office, adds.
A flurry of emotions in Itamar:
Six months after the horrifying massacre committed by Amjad and Hackim Awed from the village Awarata, who brutally murdered five members of the Fogel family in Itamar, members of the murderer's family – the Awed clan- approached Itamar this morning (Sunday) for the seasonal olive harvest.
During last year's olive harvest, the murderer Hackim Awed had entered Itamar and collected information to prepare for his deadly attack, as a result was later able to enter Itamar for the second time, together with his brother Amjad, according to intel he acquired during the harvest.
Gershon Mesika, Head of the Shomron Regional Council contacted the commanding ranks of the IDF and Knesset Members in order to stop the murderess clan's harvest: "It is an outrage that cries out to Heaven. A year ago, exactly, I warned the army commands and the Civil Administration, that terrorists can use the olive harvest as an opportunity to collect intelligence before attacking. In spite of all my warnings, hundreds of Arabs from the village Awaratha were allowed into Itamar to harvest the olives. Among them was the murderer Hackim Awed, who then collected information before the massacre. I would expect that this year there would be some logical consideration.
Chairman of the Shomron Residence Committee, Benny Katzover responded severely to the actions of the Civil Administration: "There is no limit to the Civil Administration's lack of responsibility and of sensitivity. We thought that even the callous unilateral would have a limit. The Civil Admin' has surrendered, yet again, to the radical left wing and has endangered the life of Jews.
Brigadier-General (reserve) Rabbi Avichai Rozenki, head of Itamar Yeshiva, who was the Chief Military Rabbi has responded in astonishment: "only six months after the murder, while our blood is still boiling and the residents are still caring for their bleeding wounds, allowing anyone from the Awerata vilage, where the murderers of the Fogel family and the Shvo Family came from – is outrages and negligent!"
At this time the women of Itamar are protesting in the Itamar harvest areas. – Among the protesters is Tamar Fogel, orphan of the murdered family.
Four members of the Shvo (usually spelled Shabo) family - Rachel Shabo and three of her sons (Avishai – 5, Zvika – 13 and Neria – 16) - were murdered along with a neighbor in a 2002 terror attack by another member of the Awad clan.
The two 'Palestinians' who murdered Udi, Ruti, Yoav, Elad and Hadas Fogel HY"D (may God avenge their blood) knew their way around Itamar because they had been among a group of 'Palestinians' from Awarta who were allowed into Itamar to pick olives.
The IDF Civil Administration allowed PA Arabs from the nearby village of Awarta to harvest olives within Itamar that they claimed belonged to their village, despite concerns voiced by Itamar residents, who expressed fear that some PA Arabs could use the opportunity to learn the layout of the town in order to plan an attack.
Residents of Itamar even said they would be willing to pick the olives themselves, and deliver them to residents of Awarta, rather than open their town to potentially hostile PA residents. However, Civil Administration officials insisted that Awarta residents not only be given possession of the olives in question, but be allowed to harvest the produce themselves.
Residents reported Sunday that one of the PA “farmers” had been caught red-handed as he took pictures of IDF positions in Itamar during the harvest. The man was detained for questioning, but released on the orders of the Civil Administration.
The security guard's report may explain a comment a Shin Bet official made regarding the murders. The Shin Bet man said the killers had not spied on the town prior to the murders, because they were already familiar with its layout.
The IDF and the Civil Administration face pressure each year from the PA and the foreign and Israeli left to allow Arabs to harvest olives freely, regardless of security concerns. Many far-left groups, among them the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Rabbis for Human Rights, hold annual “olive harvest” events aimed at forcing Israel to allow PA Arabs to enter Israeli land during the harvest.
But of course, Israel's security considerations are regularly dismissed. Instead, IDF soldiers are called upon to 'protect' the 'Palestinians' during the olive harvest. And the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East 'Peace Process' compares vandalism committed against 'Palestinian' olive trees (by whom is apparently irrelevant) to terrorism.
Now some of you may be asking how the 'Palestinians' of Awarta could have olive trees in Itamar. In an email, Yisrael Medad tells me that "literally dozens of yishuvim [Jewish towns CiJ] face the same situation in that while the Arabs have olive trees, they have no title deeds of any officilaity so the compromise is they get to harvest the olives but nothing else while the yishuvim can't touch the trees." The Jewish towns did not plant the trees (although that doesn't necessarily mean that the 'Palestinians' own the land on which they were planted).
So will the 'Palestinians' of Awarta be allowed to harvest olives in Itamar again this fall? I'd bet on it.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
