Announced: 80% of Migron Land Purchased by Jewish Residents

The heads of the Migron community will claim on August 1 before Israel's High Court for Justice that they do not have to move.

The Arutz 7 Hebrew site (at this moment) is announcing that 80% of the land in dispute has now been bought from the Arab owners for several hundreds of thousands of dollars from an American-Jewish philanthropist.


________________

UPDATE


MKs Elkin & Eldad demand that the government inform HCJ that there's no need to move.  (link in Hebrew)

More details here.

Of course, someone will ask: if they claimed the land wasn't owned, from whom did they buy it?


^

Land Disputes Can Be Problematic

From Alex Traiman's oped (Alex resides in the Ulpana neighborhood):-

The 'Ulpana' is neither an outpost nor illegal....The court’s verdict [to demolish] is predicated on the concept that the 30 apartments in these five buildings, unlike the nine adjacent buildings, are “built on private Palestinian land.”
In the case of Ulpana, the facts are not so clear. In 2000, the Beit El Development Company completed a land purchase agreement with the person it believed to be the rightful inheritor of the property, a grandson of the property holder according to Jordanian land records. Beit El, through an Arab intermediary, paid the local landowner 300,000 shekels ($79,000) for 30 dunams (7.4 acres) of land.
The money was essentially a gift to the landowner. The land in question is all within the boundaries of an existing community, in “Area C” under full Israeli control as determined by the Oslo Peace Accords. Due to the obvious security concerns to the residents, Beit El is protected by an electric-sensor security fence. No Jew may enter the neighboring Arab towns, and no Arab may cross into Beit El. In other words, the owner or previous owner has absolutely no possibility of accessing the property...the Beit El Development Company sued the new cousin for fraud in the Magistrates’ Court. Though this case, which will determine actual ownership of the property, remains open, the Supreme Court opted to rule on the fate of the buildings together with several isolated caravan outposts across Samaria...

...Shouldn’t the Supreme Court wait for a relevant ruling from its lower court before deciding the fate of Jewish homes? And in a democracy, are buildings knocked down in land disputes, even if the builders are found culpable? In a free-market society, aren’t there monetary means of resolving such disputes? Why does the Israeli Supreme Court rely on Jordanian land records when Jordan’s occupation of the West Bank was never internationally recognized? Further, Israel signed an internationally recognized peace treaty with Jordan in 1994, that ended all Jordanian claims to the territory.
According to Israeli law, property that has not been worked for a period of 10 years reverts to the state’s land authority. Why is this law not applied to land in Judea and Samaria? More importantly, why is the Israeli Supreme Court in this case relying on a ruling from Palestinian Authority court?

...the details of this particular case do not lend themselves to such easy conclusions.
Let’s use the Ulpana case as an opportunity to re-evaluate the policies of adjudicating Jewish land ownership in Judea and Samaria. At the very least, let’s recognize that the ruling to destroy the Ulpana homes is not as just as many believe.

^

Another Arab Apartheid Act

From Haaretz:-

The issue of land deals in the West Bank is a knotty one. The root of the problem lies with the real danger to the life of anyone who tries to sell land to Jews. This began as a practice in the 1970s, and was anchored in law upon the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. A death sentence, which has yet to be carried out, was passed most recently in 2009, on a Palestinian from Hebron who sold lands.

In order to circumvent this problem, front men are used. These buy the land from its owners, then immediately transfer it to settlers and disappear from view. In many deals it has emerged that the front man cheated the landowners, or the land purchasers, and absconded with the money.

Goodness gracious. They. You mean Arabs kill, or injure, or torure or whatever sellers of property? Is that just an inhumane practice or actually racist? Does that law serve an apartheid purpose? Helloo? Rabbis for Human Rights? Amnesty Int'l? Human Rights Watch? Anybody? ^

Three Lies in One Ma'an Agency Story

There is not a shred of truth in this Pal. tale:-

Israeli settlers raided the village of Qaryut, north Ramallah on Thursday, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, witnesses told Ma'an.

Settlers marched to the center of the village and planted trees on village land while soldiers looked on, villagers told Ma'an

.

Tu B'shvat was Wednesday.

The land is Shiloh's. And it is not at the center of Qaryut.

And as for raiding, read this.

^

"Moshko, Ruch"

As I have reported here previously, Arabs from Qaryut who claim to own agricultural land aside Highway 60 and to the left and north of the Tel, assisted by Arik Ascherman, went to court and lost their case. The fields legally belong to Moshe 'Moshko' Moshkowitz and his partner, Yaakov Sharvit (who was injured defending their land from trespassers during an earlier demonstarion).

Arabs from Qaryut returned today to demonstrate. I was on the scene, together with Yona Tzoref, a graduate of the Tatzpit program, and we took pictures.

The protestors, shouting 'Palestine Free' and 'Ruch Moshko' (= Moshko Get Out), brought along flags and olive tree saplings and also hoe-type shovels to try and dismantle the dirt blockade to prevent them entering/exiting from Highway 60 which is quite dangerous.

Pictures:

a) waiting at the east side of the Tel:

b) the fields of Moshko (all the way to the stone fence off on the right)

c) the crowd

d) leaving

e) the arrow points to the leader:

Will wait for MSM (mainstream media) reports.

^

Regavim's New English Web Site

It's here

and there's an announcement:

The Regavim Movement, Israel’s social movement for preserving Israel’s State Land and national properties has announced the establishment of an International Department to help spread its Jewish Zionist agenda to the English speaking public around the world. 

Ra’anana resident Ari Briggs will assume the position of the International Department’s Director effective immediately.  “I look forward to the opportunity of explaining to friends of Israel everywhere the realities of the situation here in Israel in regard to the illegal takeover of State Lands,” said Briggs. “People are unaware of the serious problems Israel is facing due to the illegal building by the Bedouin in the South and other Arab groups in the North, which damages the fabric of our society. Where rocket and terrorist attacks have failed this silent conquest of our state lands is accelerating and at an unprecedented pace and the government as with all previous governments is not doing enough to halt it.”  

Regavim is committed to helping set policy for the State of Israel in regard to issues concerning land through research, the publishing of articles and reports on this complex issue. Regavim is also active in legal advocacy, and meeting with members of Knesset to raise their awareness on all Land-related matters. The establishment of an international department comes in response to Israeli organizations backed by foreign NGO’s skewing the narrative in favor of anti-Israel elements. 

Regavim Director Bezalel Smotrich added that the establishment of an international department at this time is extremely important. “We understand how meaningful the influence of our friends abroad can be towards policy in Israel and we are reaching out to them to help them understand and spread our Zionist message – namely that our heritage must be safeguarded,” he said. 

^

High Court Stoops Low for Shiloh

Reported:

High Court orders Shiloh construction investigation

The High Court of Justice ordered the state on Tuesday to notify the court within 60 days regarding its intention to open a criminal investigation into unauthorized construction in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.

The panel of three justices – Miriam Naor, Esther Hayut and Neal Handel – also ordered the state to update the court regarding the issue of continued construction plans in Shiloh.

The ruling came after the court heard a petition on Monday filed by Peace Now regarding unauthorized construction of residential housing units in the settlement, northeast of Ramallah.

Peace Now claims the construction, on three areas of designated state land, is illegal because the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council has not received appropriate planning permits from the Defense Ministry.

The state informed the High Court on Sunday that the Defense Ministry decided to retroactively approve building plans in Shiloh, a move that will legalize 119 residential units in the settlement.

However,

Attorney Akiva Sylvetsky, the Binyamin Local Authority's legal representative, showed the court precedents it has set itself, which determined that the court shall not force authorities to take enforcement measures in places where the state declares an intention to legalize the construction.

The motion by Peace Now is therefore superfluous, he said.

Sylvetsky also said that Peace Now never filed any kind of complaint with the Binyamin Local Authority.

In the course of the session, the judges expressed puzzlement at the attempt by Peace Now to involve the court in matters of construction on state land within communities. The court said it would give a decision in the coming days.

Check my previous post for some explanations of what's going on but bureaucratic delay is not an unknow problem, even in Shiloh...Southwest Illinois:-

Police contract negotiations cost Shiloh $30,000

It took 17 months for the Village of Shiloh and the Fraternal Order of Police to come to terms on a new contract, which gave full-time police officers on average a 3 percent raise last year, this year and next year.

In addition to pay increases, the lengthy contract negotations cost the village $30,000 in legal fees.

And I finally received from Dani Dayan his op-ed on the subject from January 2008: Legal, and then some which provides some insight into related problems.

Excerpts:

...The decision to form Bruchin came from the ministerial committee on settlement in 1983. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin approved the decision in 1988. Former defense minister Moshe Arens also gave his approval to Bruchin's construction several years later. The area designated for Bruchin was all state-owned.

The state approved the development of infrastructures for the town. The non-governmental pacifist organization Peace Now argues the state invested over $3 million in the town. Bruchin is now home to some 80 families, who most ly reside in permanent homes.

The government, following Sasson's lead and the media, claims that Bruchin is unauthorized and illegal.

Bruchin was authorized by the appropriate state authorities. The land it occupies is state land, and it has a detailed municipal outline. But since its formal approval process isn't completed, Sasson calls Bruchin an illegal outpost. And so, the Israel Electric Corporation does not upgrade the town's infrastructure.

On the western side of the Green Line lies Lehavot Haviva, a veteran kibbutz belonging to the Hashomer Hatzair movement. I do not know whether in 1949, when the kibbutz was established, or in 1951 when it was moved to its current locale, it was done as a government resolution. What is certain is that the kibbutz was set up on lands that did not belong to the state.

Before it was moved to its current location, the authorities evicted the people of the Arab village Jalameh, in the framework of a plan by the Prime Minister's Office to "remove small Arab shanties and move their inhabitants to larger villages." The residents of the land were transferred to neighboring Arab villages.

Sasson is troubled by municipal blueprints that have been lawfully approved. Well, Lehavot Haviva has a blueprint which was approved in 1980 - 31 years (!) after the kibbutz was formed. For 31 years, the kibbutz had been, according to Sasson philosophy, an illegal outpost. And yet, no one demanded it be removed.

...That used to be the procedure through which town and settlements were approved, and it was law. Compared to what went on in those years, the procedure for setting up the "outposts" is a temple of decorum and of justice. No one had been evicted from their homes for the formation of a Jewish settlement.

...The issue of the outposts is not a legal one, but a matter of foreign policy. Otherwise, the pledge to evacuate them would have been made to the president of the Supreme Court instead of the U.S. Secretary of State...

^

Peace Now Takes the Criminalize Route

As I noted previously, construction at Shiloh, the object of a Peace Now High Court appeal which failed, is a simple matter of administration and bureaucracy, of parcelization and zoning (see what is on the books in the UK).  The ownership, as if it is "stolen privately-owned land", is not the issue but if land originally set aside for agriculture can be used for building homes.

Trust me, living here, no real agriculture can be developed there where the building is.  The original designation was simple an off-hand decision at the time.

There is nothing criminal in the procedure but our Peace Now Zionists won't give up.

Read on from a JPost report: Shiloh construction may bring criminal probe

The State Attorney’s office is weighing the possibility of ordering a criminal investigation into illegal construction [it isn't illegal] in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh, even as the Defense Ministry has said it plans to legalize the building.

...The panel of three justices – Miriam Naor, Esther Hayut and Neal Handel – heard a petition filed by Peace Now over alleged illegal construction of residential housing units in Shiloh, northeast of Ramallah.  Peace Now claims the construction, on three areas of designated state land, is unlawful because the Binyamin Regional Council has not received appropriate planning permits from the Defense Ministry.

Monday’s hearing came after the state informed the High Court on Sunday that the Defense Ministry has decided to retroactively approve building plans in Shiloh, a move that will legalize 119 residential units in the settlement. [a move that happens all the time all over Israel as well as in kibbutzim]

...Peace Now had asked the court to order the Defense Ministry to explain why it had not taken all necessary actions to prevent the houses’ construction and to investigate and to prosecute those members of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council responsible for the building.

...The petition relates to three different areas in Shiloh, one of which was officially zoned as agricultural lands, and which cannot be used for residential building. [well, if you change that status, the land can be used.  is Peace Now asserting that the government can't change its mind?]

In order to legalize building on that land, the state must now undertake a public process, during which members of the public will be allowed 60 days to voice any opposition to the zoning changes.  The other two areas are already zoned as residential, but Peace Now argues that the houses built on that land were constructed without a proper permit. [Peace Now turns here, turns there and wants us to get dizzy]

...Peace Now had contacted the Judea and Samaria regional police and the deputy attorney-general asking for a criminal investigation into alleged illegal construction by the Binyamin Regional Council.  However, the state said in its written response that such an investigation was “not a simple matter.”

In Monday’s High Court hearing, attorney Michal Friedlander, for the state, said that that a decision has not yet been made regarding the criminal investigation...Friedlander said that a decision would be made on the matter within several weeks.

...After the hearing, attorney Akiva Sylzetsky, for the Binyamin Regional Council, told The Jerusalem Post he was optimistic the court would decide not to intervene in the matter of the housing construction.  Regarding the police investigation, Sylzetsky said it would be “difficult to start an investigation in a place where the process of legalization has already started,” and that any investigation would not necessarily result in indictments being filed.

According to Sylzetsky, the state’s move to legalize housing construction in Shiloh is part of a trend that has developed over the past year and-a-half in reaction to petitions like this one, filed against building on state (public) lands in the West Bank.  The petitions have given the state the impetus to legalize settlement construction on state lands, which lacks the necessary permits. The land is considered public and there are no Palestinian private land claims against it, Sylzetsky says, because the High Court has forced the state to give an answer about the land.

“Peace Now’s petitions have been having the opposite affect to that intended,” he added. “In several places, the state has legalized construction because of petitions, whereas if the settlers themselves had asked for legalization it would never have happened.”...The state can legalize the houses because they are built not on private Palestinian land but on so-called “state lands,” land considered public property under Ottoman law. [not only that, sir, but the League of Nagtions Mandate decision specifically charged that state and waste lands were to be used for "close Jewish settlment", Article 6]

According to that law, which was in force when Israel took the area from Jordan in 1967, land in the West Bank is considered state land unless an individual has occupied, cultivated and paid taxes on it for at least 10 years.

Meanwhile, also on Monday, the High Court of Justice decided to postpone a hearing of a petition by civil rights watchdog Yesh Din into alleged illegal construction on private Palestinian land in the Kochav Ya’acov settlement.  The decision came after the state agreed to carry out a land ownership survey. Lawyers Michael Sfard, Shlomy Zecharya and Avissar Lev filed the petition on behalf of Ali Barakat, head of the village council of Akeb, whose constituents allegedly own the land.

One day, the real criminals will get their comeuppance.

That is not a threat but an expectation and observation.

P.S.  What to buy some property?

P.P.S.  Did you know that as of May 1968 a land survey was done by the Israel Lands Administration, the General Staff's Settlement Department and the Department of Agriculture. These were its findings: 50,000 dunums were in private Palestinian lands.
(see: Shlomo Gazit, The Carrot and the Stick: Israel's Policy in Judea and Samaria, 1967-68, B'nai B'rith Books, Washington, D.C., 1995) and that by November 1992, one year after the Madrid Peace Conference and the start of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, land held by Israel potentially for the use of Israeli settlers constituted more than 60 percent of the total area of Judea and Samaria and 35 percent of the total area of the Gaza Strip. Prior to 1948, Jews bought lands in the Judea and Samaria and when the Jordanian government took over, it passed the Custodian of Enemy Property Law and established the office of a Custodian of Enemy Property under whose administration the lands that had been bought by Jews were placed. These amounted to some 30,000 dunums out of the total area of 5.5 million dunums (see: Gazit, op. cit., p. 126).

As this pro-Arab source explains, land ownership is complicated and compounded by refusals to register such.


^

Anatot Invader - Serial Rapist

According to Maariv, Yassin Rifai, the Arab who claims land in Anatot and was the trigger for the violence at the community over Rosh Hashana, is a convicted rapist:

He is married to a Jewess, a former resident of Gaza.  He and his borthers claim land within the boundaries of Anatot.  He has been sentenced in one case of a rape of two tourists to 14 years in jail.

It seems the anger of Anatot residents is colored by several complaints to the police they have made against him for following around children, photographing them and even hurling rocks at them, which he denies.

^

There's a Good Story in Here

"Here" is this Haaretz smear piece on my next-door community, Eli, where the neighborhood in question houses some of my good friends, and the widows of two IDF heroes, Ronni Klein and Eli Peretz Hayad:

Israel expropriates Palestinian land in order to legalize West Bank settlement

Move is Netanyahu government's first confiscation of land in the territories.

For the first time in three years, the state has confiscated uncultivated land in the West Bank. The land will be used to legalize a nearby settlement outpost. Last week, acting on orders from the government, the Civil Administration declared 189 dunams of land belonging to the Palestinian village of Karyut to be state land, so as to retroactively legalize houses and a road in the Hayovel neighborhood of the settlement of Eli. This would seem to violate Israel's long-standing commitment to the United States not to expropriate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion.

An Ottoman land law dating from 1858 allows uncultivated land to be declared state land. This law, which is still in force in the West Bank, is what was used to carry out the expropriation.  According to last Sunday's decree, the lands in question belong to the village of Karyut. Hayovel was built on these lands in 1998 as a temporary outpost, and later permanent houses and an access road were built. A 2005 report on the outposts by attorney Talia Sasson concluded that Hayovel was built on private Palestinian land.

After the Peace Now and Yesh Din organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice against the construction in 2005 and 2009, the Civil Administration reviewed the land's legal status. Since Jordan, which ruled the West Bank from 1948-67, had never registered them in its land registry, the Civil Administration reclassified them as under review. This meant that any place that was still cultivated in the late 1990s would remain private land, but the rest could be declared state land...

The story is, in short, that

(a) Talia Sasson, a far-left Meretz activist, used her political prejudices in her official state position and wrongly decided what she decided;

(b) you'll note that the Arabs of the area had no legal standing even after more than 150 years passed under four different regimes: Ottoman, Britihs, Jordan and Israel and couldn't prove their ownership;

(c) the land in question was never purchased and the villages simply extended communal claims rather than private ones as agricultural land.

All this would never be tolerated in civilized orderly locations.

Also, as the League of Nations Mandate declared:

ART. 5.
The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.

ART. 6.
The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.

So, the whole idea that we Jews have no rights, that the local residents have more rights, that somehow we are 'stealing', that the Arabs are better than we Jews is all a fiction.

The courts are open for counter-claims but the presumption that there is private land when perhaps not and certainly never registered seems to lead the theme rather than highlight the Jewish primacy.

^

An Ad Based on Simple Falsehood

Was directed (k/t = Copyranter) to this ad

Any theme, even the toughest to deal with or to understand, can be translated and explained through a graph. This is the concept that drives the new campaign created for the Millward Brown Brazil ad hoc research institute by the agency Young & Rubicam Brazil. The action, entitled Ethnics, counts on three print-media ads Muslim, Jewish and African and uses a clean and incisive language to give people a new look into controversial subjects and highlight the importance of the studies performed by the advertiser to eliminate preconceived ideas.

The first ad transforms a Muslim's veil into a sort of graph, which makes it clear that one should not generalize with regards to those that follow the religion. The piece Jewish brings a kippa as a graph and compares the proportion of the territory dominated by the Palestinians in comparison to the Jewish territory, in 1946 and presently...

...The creation was by Laura Esteves and Daniel Salles, under the creative direction of Rui Branquinho, Flávio Casarotti and Sérgio Fonseca.

The ad:

But the truth of the content, misrepresented propaganda, is here, and here.  And also here.

Clean?  Incisive?

A simple lie.

^

A Star of David - Legal and Right

Some people seem to be upset by this photo:

That's because they read this caption that accompanied the photograph - and actually believed it to be a trtuhful representation of reality:

A Star of David and the name of the Israeli settlement of Shiloh written in Hebrew are seen on a Palestinian farmer field vandalized by Israel settlers on January 12, 2011in the northern West Bank village of Qariot, near Nablus.

Well, I happen to know something of this incident.  In fact, I blogged about the background which was a legal dispute with illegal intervention, leading to Arab violence against Jews perceived to be desirable due to the presence of Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights.  And read his comments at a later post on another but similar issue: land disputes.

They lost the court case but Ascherman never reported that.

The judge decided that the land in the map below

was legally the property of Moshe Moskowitz of Shiloh and he could plough it and farm it  at will.  You can see Shiloh marked in the lower right-hand corner.  Qaryut is in the top right-hand corner.  The pink-colored land is below Qaryut and Shiloh and lies much lower than either village.  The road that can be discerned as the left-hand boundary of the property is Highway 60, from Jerusalem north.  Our main road.

Here's the best I could do from Google Earth:

It was done at night as a celebration of their legal victory.

Soon to come: agricultural produce at a site never developed by Arabs and who allowed themselves to be used by RHR and Ascherman to attack Jews.

First Rule of Arab Claims Against Jews: Never believe them until incontrovertable proof is provided.  Jews are not angels but we're not devils either.


UPDATE

Just received this scanned picture, curtesy of Yonah Tzoref.

It was taken from the east, on the Tel of Shiloh and it reads: Shiloh Land

And another picture:

^

Landgrab or Grab of Truth - Qaryout

Caught this here from Iran's PressTV:

Israeli settlers have illegally annexed 130 square kilometers of land in Qaryout, a village south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Ma'an news agency reported Mustafa Barghouthi as saying on Saturday.

The Palestinian lawmaker further added that construction material has been brought in to start building some 3,000 new units throughout the settlement bloc.

Well, Qaryout (or Karyut or whatever transliterated spelling) is just next to Shiloh but closer to Eli. That sounds, well, an "Abu-Ali" story, as we say in these parts of the Middle East. So, let's check that.

Ma'an has it different, at least in numbers:-

Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi said Saturday...Israeli settlers illegally annexed 130 dunums of land in Qaryout, a village south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and that construction material has been brought in to commence building works.

The PNI leader said there was a plan underway to construct 3,000 new housing units throughout the settlement bloc, adding that 603 homes were built during Israel's 10-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, due to expire on 26 September.

I called up a friend in Eli who doesn't know anything.

Wait for an update.


__________________________


UPDATE


Message from Avi Roeh, Chairman, Benjamin Regional Council Head:

The council is not involved and he knows nothing of what, if anything, is going on.



- - -

Al-Walaja's "Loss" (And The "Oldest" Olive Tree)

From Harriet Sherwood's latest in The Guardian:

According to the UNRWA, the United Nations body that deals with Palestinian refugees, around 70% of Al Walaja's land was lost in the 1948 war. Then, following the six-day war in 1967, nearly half the remaining land was annexed by Israel and placed under the expanded Jerusalem borders. In the 1970s more land was confiscated for Jewish settlements. Now even more land is being taken to construct the barrier.

That first land "loss". To whom did the land go?

If Israel, well, that's what happens when you launch an aggressive war in defiance of the UN and lose.

If Jordan, well, that's Arabs for you.

If neither, who has it?

But kudos to her for including this "peaceful" remark by an Arab landowner:

Bargouth hopes there will be more, despite the stiff military presence containing demonstrators. But, he believes, non-violent protest may not be enough to save his and others' land. "The occupation must be resisted by all methods, from demonstrations to the gun," he says.

And here's a nice bubbeh maiseh -

Al Walaja has another historical claim...behind a padlocked gate stands what is thought to be the world's oldest olive tree. Dated variously at 5,000 and 7,000 years old...for two years he has watered the tree by hand and has been rewarded by the appearance of new branches. "It has a promising future," he says.

The olive branch is an international symbol of peace.

Oldest?

Well,

a) Many people claim that the oldest olive tree, 5,000 years old, is in Pano Vouves, in Kolymvari, Chania. The average life expectancy of an olive tree is 300-600 years.

b) This wonderful tree has been certified as more than 2000 years of age. It is on a tourist development, Pedras del Rei near Tavira and while there are many other old olive trees in the area, this is the most spectacular.


c) The oldest olive tree is 5,000 years old in Kolymvari, Chania.

d) The northern villages of Amioun and Bshaale are home to some of the oldest olive trees in the world, many of which date back at least 1,500 years.

e) An Olive tree in Bar, Montenegro and another one in Crete is claimed to be over 2000 years old. Two olive trees in the Arab town of Arraba and five trees in Deir Hanna, both in the Galilee region of Israel, have been determined to be over 3000 years old. All seven trees are still producing olives until today. Another olive tree found in Sardinia, Italy is claimed to be aged between 3000 to 4000 years old as concluded by various studies.

Guess it's tough claiming you are the "oldest" and tough for a journalist to spend a quarter of an hour googling.

What's bubba maiseh in Arabic?

- - -

Par for the NYTimes And/Or Liberals

Nicholas Kristof's third piece of 'wisdom', and that's a subjective term, on his visit to Israel was a PR puff piece for Rabbis for Human Rights. It's called, ugly enough for a fair and responsible journalist, "In Israel, the Noble vs. The Ugly" comments, some great, are here). I know of some people who are probably acting orgiastically.

Since, as of this posting, my comments weren't included, and since someone asked me to comment, please see my reaction interspersed below.

You see, Kristof referred to an incident that occurred at Shiloh, just near the Tel.

Here's the relevant section:

I watched the ugly side of Israel collide with its more noble version, as Rabbi Ascherman and I visited a rural area in the northern West Bank where Jewish settlers have taken over land that Palestinian farmers say is theirs.

“If we try to enter our land, settlers will be waiting, and we will be beaten,” said Muhammad Moqbel, a 71-year-old Palestinian from the village of Qaryout who pointed to fields that he said had been stolen by settlers. Last year, he said, he was hospitalized with a broken rib after settlers attacked while he was picking his own olives.

Rabbis for Human Rights has helped Palestinians recover some land through lawsuits in Israeli courts. And Rabbi Ascherman and other Jewish activists escort such farmers to protect them. The settlers still attack, but soldiers are more likely to intervene when it is rabbis being clubbed.

As Mr. Moqbel and Rabbi Ascherman were explaining all this to me, a settler vehicle came down to confront us. And then another. The settlers photographed us. We photographed them. I asked them if they would agree to be interviewed. They refused to respond to my questions.

“They’re just trying to intimidate us,” Rabbi Ascherman said.

As I noted previously, Kristof rarely does what a good journalist does, that is, actually talk to both sides of a story. True, he tried to talk to some security persons

"I asked them if they would agree to be interviewed. They refused to respond to my questions."

but (a) seeing Ascherman, we know to stay clear. He's a promoter of violence disguised as "Arabs protecting themselves" (more below); (b) Do they have to agree to be interviewed? I don't know who they were and maybe they don't know English and they surely weren't going to permit Arik to translate for them. You needn't hold that against them; (c) call me and we'll talk. Be a mentsch and don't come in through the back door. Don't surprise us. Do I show up at 43rd Street in Manhattan unannounced to talk to you?

Okay, it's time we get to some general particulars:

1. Kristof writes:

"Jewish settlers have taken over land that Palestinian farmers say is theirs."

We have been here at Shiloh since 1978, just over 32 years, and I have heard that claim dozens of times. The exact opposite is just as true. As far as I know, the land ownership of that specific plot, actually four sections, presently is being adjudicated.

It was Ascherman who decided to interfere with the court process last December, hired a tractor, paid some Arabs to enter the disputed land and provoked a confrontation by harassing Yaakov Sharvit with cameras in his face. My blog post with the story.

And, by the way, he's against "judaizing" Jerusalem.


2. Kristof writes:

“If we try to enter our land, settlers will be waiting, and we will be beaten,”

On the day of the December incident, Mr. Sharvit and Mr. Moshe Moshkowitz were simply non-violently obstructing the entrance of the Arabs' tractor unto land that a court order had prohibited Arabs from entering. The court order that particular section not to be tilled either by Jews or Arabs. Incidentally, another, larger section was awarded to the Jews involved for tilling.

So, Ascherman acted against a court order.


3. Kristof writes

"pointed to fields that he said had been stolen by settlers."

Ah, he said. Did he show you a piece of paper? A land deed? Tax payment receipts? Court order? Kushan [title deed see glossary] registration?


4. Kristof writes:

"he was hospitalized with a broken rib after settlers attacked while he was picking his own olives."

If I am not mistaken, this incident was when Arabs invaded Jewish olive groves near Shvut Rachel/Achiyah and threw stones. Jews were slightly injured.

Getting back to the incident of Mr. Sharvit, he was struck by an Arab on the day of the particular incident, fell, striking his head on a rock and needed to be transported to hospital for mild concussion.

5. Kristof writes:

"Rabbis for Human Rights has helped Palestinians recover some land through lawsuits in Israeli courts."

Maybe. How many suits have they lost because they lied? How manhy suits have they initiated and how many won even without lying?

6. Kristof writes:

"Jewish activists escort such farmers to protect them."

Especially if they enter Jewish land like further north in the Shomron area. Review the activities of Yoel/Joel Marshak, for example, here.


7. Kristof writes:

"The settlers still attack, but soldiers are more likely to intervene when it is rabbis being clubbed."

How do the soldiers know there are Rabbis there? They don't wear clerical collars and look more like local Jews.

8. Kristof writes:

“They’re just trying to intimidate us,”

That's 'projection', throwing on Jews what Arabs really do. It's a presumption. Ascherman is the intimidates and worse, as he provides a 'cover' for Arabs to feel they can get violent and nothing will happen to them as long as he is around (see 7 above), Ascherman is a type of a human shield.

9. Kristof writes:

"Rabbis for Human Rights redeems not only Israeli values, but also Jewish ones."

We think it a very Jewish idea for Jews to live in their national homeland territory and make sure Arab terror fails. Redeeming land is a really big mitzvah as long as provable private property is not taken illegally. We do not steal, like others have done. We have lost court cases (Elon Moreh).


10. Kristof writes:

"building bridges between Jews and Palestinians helps make Israel a safer place "

Which is why our neighbor to the east, Zaki, was taken twice to Shchem to be tortured by PA security personnel because he was building bridges to us. I know of no sustainable Pal. effort parallel to that of Peace Now, B'tselem, Taayush or Association for Civil Rights in Israel which means they are all "ugly"?


Kristof has wrong facts, wrong opinions, predisposed judgment, bias and bad logic.

Is that par for the NYTimes or for liberals?


P.S. To be continued.

- - -

Land Dispute

Against their instructions, the police, once again, attempted to circumvent standing rules that wherever Arabs are legally permitted to till their property and that said property has been in dispute or is in close proximity to a Jewish community, there must be prior notice given and all arrangements must be made aforehand so as to avoid problesm of misunderstanding.

Those rules were made for the safety of the Arabs as well as to assure the jewish residents that they are not being threatened.

Today, in an area between Shvut Rachel and Shiloh, the police goofed it, perhaps on purpose and a small demonstration took place and in the end, the Arabs had to go home and the army needs now to rearrange the ploughing under strict supervision.

Here are some photos: