United Nations: The settlers’ attack on the Palestinian olive harvest season is a tool for displacement and plunder

New York - Ofoq News - The United Nations Human Rights Office said that the colonists’ attack on the olive harvest season is “another tool of displacement and dispossession” that increases the suffering of Palestinian communities, calling on all countries and donors to move urgently to protect it.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs explained that at least 160 attacks were recorded carried out by colonists related to the olive harvest season in the West Bank during the first two weeks of this month, with the protection of the Israeli occupation forces or with their participation.

He pointed out that an international journalist was attacked while covering the olive harvest season, and European diplomatic representatives were attacked during their visit to a Palestinian village during the past few days.

The office pointed out that the colonists used "live ammunition, deliberately set fires, destroyed olive trees and orchards, including perennial trees, damaged Palestinian property, and stole olive crops after they were harvested and agricultural equipment."

The office also confirmed that thousands of Palestinian farmers cannot reach their olive trees to harvest the crop due to escalating Israeli restrictions, while “colonists who are in the occupied land illegally are allowed to access Palestinian lands and harvest their crops.”

In this context, the Director of the Office, Ajit Songai, said: “Palestinians often say that olive trees are a symbol of their collective existence and their connection to the land. The attack on the olive harvest season cannot be separated from the ongoing, large-scale Israeli assault on the existence of the Palestinians as a group linked to this land. It is another tool of displacement and dispossession that adds to the suffering of communities whose rights are attacked on a daily basis.”