80 Olive Trees

Caught this (via WAFA) - The UN's OCHA report for this week, p 2 contains this claim:

...In three separate incidents this week, Israeli settlers set fire to around 800 olive trees in the villages of Bruqin in the Salfit governorate (680) and Ras Karkar in the Ramallah governorate (120). Also, settlers sprayed chemicals on around 80 olive trees in Turmus ‘Ayya (Ramallah governorate), damaging them.

This is the first I have heard of an incident in my neighborhood.

But 680 torched olive trees?

In any case, note this from August relayed from OCHA:

“In four separate incidents, Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to agricultural land belonging to the villages of Turmus ‘Ayya in the Ramallah governorate and Burin, Awarta and Jalud in the Nablus governorate, damaging around 400 olive and almond trees,” it said.

"Reported"? So, OCHA cannot confirm anything. They have no supervision or investigatory ability? They rely on the Pals.?

Do they see pictures?

What is going on?

Are the Pals. simply throwing out numbers? Moving from district to district with the same basic story, repeated in similar fashion?

This, of course, does not mean that official Yesha bodies, whether the Yesha Council or the various regional councils, can afford to ignore this propaganda warfare. A response unit needs be established.

Last year we had a "poisoning" story which went nowhere. The theme gets more and more outlandish.

I have written to Mai Yassin, a spokesperson at OCHA.

P.S.

Here is another weird claim:

Turmus Aya is known for its grapes [what grapes?]...On top of that hill, stood houses with red roof tiles and they were built with the same structure. There was a water tower for infrastructure in the middle. To the right of those houses, there was a big building, which is a public building. The trees in that area were not olive trees and they were different than the ones I saw in Turmus Aya. All of these characteristics are characteristics of settlements [modernity; variety]. I asked the people about the settlement and they told me its called “Shilo.” They told me there is another settlement on the other side, which is called “Shf [Shvut] Rahel.” The Israeli government confiscated 4000 acres [16,000 dunam?] of land, which was planted with olive trees, in order to build those settlements.

I have been in Shiloh for over 30 years. The number of olive trees in our village that were planted by Arabs was less than 50 and they were harvested for about a dozen years, annually. It became apparent, though, that they could not prove proper ownership and was obviously a rogue operation.

^