West Bank farms fall to Israeli bulldozers

[Violet_Crumble]

THE farmers of Beit Ula spent two years preparing their new groves of fruit, nut and olive trees, clearing rocks, building stone terraces and digging deep cisterns to catch the scarce rain.

The Israeli army destroyed it all in less than a day.

"We heard they were here at 6.30 in the morning, when it was still dark," said Sami al-Adam, one of eight farmers whose terraces were bulldozed on January 15.

"There must have been dozens of soldiers with jeep and bulldozers, and they brought a lot of Filipino workers, or maybe they were Thai, who pulled up the trees and cut them and buried them so we wouldn't be able to plant them again."


<snip>

The Israeli military department that controls the occupied West Bank, confusingly called "the Civil Administration", said it demolished the terraces because they were built illegally on state land belonging to Israel.

This came as a surprise to the West Bank farmers, who brandish documents with Palestinian, Israeli and even Turkish stamps that, they say, prove their title to the land. It came as an even bigger surprise to the European Union, which provided 64,000 euros to the project as part of a program to improve "food security" for Palestinians

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/west-bank-farms-fall-to-israeli-bulldozers/2008/02/22/1203467386462.html

[Submariner]

1. Israel looks like South African apartheid redux the past few years

If they are going to keep bulldozing other peoples property peace will never take hold.

[leftchick]

2. the right wingers don't care about peace

it is obvious what their intent is.

[Crunchy Frog]

3. So are we going to get any of the usual suspects defending this?

Or are they just going to pretend it doesn't exist?

[Tom Joad]

4. This seems to come natural for Israeli policy makers.

it's not like any US politician would question these things, so its not like they have to worry about funding or "diplomatic fallout".

they will jump all over each other to say they will support sending even more aid than the other.

[Tom Joad]

5. And the usual *&%^ who wonder out loud "why can't Palestine

prosper like Israel? it must be because they are a backward people" meme DU has going... i do wonder what they will say.

[azurnoir]

6. Tom the real question is

why will some in Israel and the US do all they can to make sure the Palestinians never prosper. The claim will be because they will buy more and better weapons, but in reality it is not weapons purchases they fear; or how do so many here claim the early Zionists legally got land from Palestinians?

[Tom Joad]

7. They will say it is because Israel buys better weapons?

I guess that is obvious reason they are able to oppress Palestinians.

[azurnoir]

9. They (Israel supporters) will say

what the Palestinians will do with money is buy more and/or better weapons.

[Tom Joad]

10. Each one of these bulldozers costs millions.

courtesy US taxpayers.

I think what Palestinians spend for any kind of arms is very, very small compared to the overall economy... what they are allowed to have in terms of an economy, that is.

[azurnoir]

11. Really this has nothing to do

with what the Palestinians spend on arms, or what the Israelis spend on bulldozers, for that matter. It has to do with why there seems to be a concerted effort to keep the Palestinians in poverty, while of course blaming their leaders. The OP it self was a prime example of this, the Israelis IMO knew what they would do from the moment the first stones were turned but waited intentionally until the work was completed, that part was physiological warfare, make the result so devastating that the Palistinians will not try again and maybe the EU will get the message too "don't waste your money, we do not care, we will take the land anyway"

It is the why, the arms accusations are nothing but excuses, much like the ones that state the only reason that Hamas wants a cease fire is they can rearm or conversely they are running out of arms. It is an excuse to maintain a status quo nothing more.

Now the why or some of it, imagine if you will a fully developed Gaza and WB Palestinian economy along with a unified state, this would include the NG resources and all agricultural and possible future technological developments, there is also tourism and other possibilities, in short the Palestinians would be as living as well off as Israeli's if not better and maybe, just maybe financially able to regain some of their land in Israel by purchasing it back a small parcel at a time, this may also be why the hurry by Israel to put as much land as possible in the hands of the JNF.

Now this is solely my vision but I think a possibility and not a bad one for either side in the long run, what scares me is how far will some go to stop it from happening.

[Tom Joad]

8. who needs a farm... Arabs have their own tv show on Israeli tv

so let's just praise Israel and pass them the Caterpillars!

[LeftishBrit]

12. This is a serious injustice

See Peace Now's report:

http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159

Anyone who is upset over this should consider giving as much support as possible to Peace Now, and/or other organizations that work toward peace and civil rights:

www.nif.org

www.bsst.org.uk

www.ameinu.net

[Tom Joad]

13. Unfortunately, it is also seriously routine. The US needs to end aid to Israel

then maybe it may see the folly of its actions. We need a grassroots movement to make this happen.
http://endtheoccupation.org/

[oberliner]

16. The US does not need to end aid to Israel

If anything, the US needs to increase the foreign aid it distributes (Israelis and Palestinians included), which now accounts for a miniscule percentage of our federal budget.

If we took a small percentage of the obscene amount of money we are spending to wage war in Iraq and re-directed it towards helping improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians, it would go a long way towards encouraging their leaders to abandon militant rhetoric in favor of negotiations. At this point, it would be difficult to convince anyone that peace is a goal the US endorses.

Ideally, we could have a similarly positive impact on other conflict areas around the world if we started restructuring our federal budget away from militarism and towards world peace.

[LeftishBrit]

17. ITA - More for peace; less for war!

Here's a tiny step in the right direction:

http://www.allmep.org/Congress_Adopts_ALLMEP_Proposal.php

[Tom Joad]

18. Nothing in this proposal will return a single square centimeter to these farmers.

There is nothing wrong with the proposal, but it really does not address the issue.

.

[Tom Joad]

23. You want more farms destroyed with US tax dollars?

If Israel is going to use these funds in such a manner, i cannot understand why any progressive would support it.

Why is it that you give lip-service, at least, to opposing occupation in Iraq, and funding the Iraq debacle, but think we should send more aid to Israel as it plows under farms.

This attack on Palestinian farmers was nothing less than a terrorist act. And you want more aid to go to Israel?

[oberliner]

26. More foreign aid generally would be a better use of US tax dollars

than what it is currently being used for.

If we could take some money away from the Iraq War Budget and devote it to foreign aid across the board (including to Israelis and Palestinians) then I think that would be an improvement.

Maybe if we redirected our spending away from various military campaigns we would be able to have more credibility in encouraging other countries to use US foreign aid in the name of peace.

The US has spent close to 800 billion dollars on the war in Iraq in five years.

[Tom Joad]

28. Most aid to Israel is military, so it would be merely used for

arms used in attacks against Palestinians instead of Iraqis. In the most brutal of attacks, as this is but one example. I don't see a net gain there if you oppose militarism.

And you don't have to tell me that the US spends too much on Iraq, tell it to Olmert, who told aipac to continue to support that Occupation also.

As far as economic aid to Israel, i think that is preposterous. Why send economic aid to such a relatively prosperous nation? How is that rational?

Why not aid to Africa instead? Maybe Bush could actually fund the programs to stop AIDS there.

[oberliner]

30. The world needs to change - but it won't happen overnight

If the US simultaneously agrees to stop selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other states in the region, and, if Iran and Syria signed an agreement promising not to provide weapons and money to organizations that promote violence against Israel, then we might be on to something.

We've got a long way to go to moving this world away from militarism and towards a culture of peace.

Getting leaders like Bush and Olmert out of office would definitely be a step in the right direction. So would supporting those who wish to be free of oppressive, militaristic dicatorships around the globe.

Perhaps you don't think sending economic aid to a relatively prosperous nation is rational, but it's certainly more rational than a lot of things the US currently spends a lot more of the budget on.

I agree with you that we ought to be spending significantly more money in helping combat AIDS and malaria in Africa.

[Tom Joad]

31. The US is providing weapons to this regime of violence and terror

where not even simple farmers are spared.
Was it the fear that Palestinian families might be fed? That a few Palestinians might in some small way prosper?

I don't understand why you wish to continue to support this culture of violence.
It seems very hypocritical of you.

[Tom Joad]

24. you have yet to say anything in this thread about the actions of

the Israel regime in destroying these farmers crops. or explained to us the dire threat these olive trees posed to Israeli people.

I wonder why.

[oberliner]

25. The actions were awful

The olive trees posed no threat.

The Occupation should end.

We should do all we can to encourage both sides to negotiate a two-state solution.

[Tom Joad]

27. In the meantime, send more Cats to Israel?

Cats, as in Caterpillar bulldozers.

[oberliner]

29. You look at the federal budget and your biggest concern is bulldozers?

That would be very much towards the bottom of the list of items I would change if I could revamp the federal budget.

[Tom Joad]

32. It's not the $$$ amount, but the purpose

I am also very concerned about the use of torture at Gitmo, but if you just look at dollars then its not a major part of the budget. Very tiny part of the budget.
But it exacts a great price for our nation... and it hurts the cause of human rights and peace.

The US providing aid to Israel does the same thing. How can the US pretend to favor human rights and advance better relations with Arab nations when even peaceful farmers are overrun by US supplied bulldozers?

You think little chats over coffee are going to undo the damage here?

So my question is, do you want the US to continue providing bulldozers to Israel while it continues to bulldoze farms and destroy homes? You seem totally unconcerned about that, or at best, think the rest of the world should reform before Israel is held accountable in any way.

[Tom Joad]

33. Do you not think that destroying the possibility of peace is an

extremely high price for the US, for Palestinians, for Israelis?
If the US really supported the cause of peace, it would make sure its aid is not used for such blatantly illegal purposes.

[Tom Joad]

14. Wonder what it looked like for Palestinian farmers to see his field go under the Cats?

Wonder if it looked like this?

The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects, having the incredible strength of insects….The man sitting in the iron seat did not look like a man; gloved, goggled, rubber dust mask over the nose and mouth, he was part of the monster, a robot in the seat…

A twitch of the controls could swerve the cat’, but the driver’s hands could not twitch because the monster that built the tractor, the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow gotten into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him—goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception…He could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth. He sat in an iron seat and stepped on iron pedals. …

The iron gate bit into the house corner, crumbled the wall, and wrenched the little house from its foundation so that it fell sideways, crushed like a bug. And the driver was goggled and a rubber mask covered his nose and mouth. The tractor cut a straight line on, and the air and the ground vibrated with its thunder. The tenant man stared after it, his rifle in his hand. His wife was beside him, and the quiet children behind. And all of them stared after the tractor. The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5

Time we organized against these monstrous policies carried out with the support of the US... No more can this be done in our name, and with our silence.

[oberliner]

15. The Okies were ethnically cleansed in a sense

Disturbing to think of how many hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their homes in the 1930s in the United States.

Most of those farmers had worked the land for generations.

What an American tragedy.

The US continues to make it virtually impossible for family farms to exist in this country even today.

As for the Israelis and the Palestinians, we ought to work towards bringing the two sides together to help them negotiate a settlement that leads to two states living side by side at peace with one another.

[Tom Joad]

19. At least they are free to return, if they choose.

[oberliner]

20. And at least they haven't responded to their plight with suicide bombings and rocket attacks

I think this analogy may be on the verge of collapse!

But I do appreciate the Grapes of Wrath reference.

[Tom Joad]

21. If the regime of Israel stopped these attacks against farmers,

perhaps there would be less bombings and rockets.

but you don't seem interested in stopping these attacks against these farmers. What sane purpose does this serve, to destroy the crops of civilians? None of these people are involved in attacks against Israel... they have been busy planting and working the land. All the things that people are saying Palestinians should be doing, and they are punished with this military attack.

What would a Palestinian father say to his son? You want him to tell him that if they concentrate on developing their own economy, rather than the resistance, then they will prosper? Do you think Israel made such a claim believable today? Do you not see how Israel made such a move toward peace that much more difficult?


Why should US taxpayers fund Israel when it does things like this??

[Tom Joad]

22. Obviously, in the eyes of the Israeli misRulers, these olive trees posed an

existential threat to the existence of Israel as a Jewish State.

[Englander]

34. Twilight Zone / Cut short

By Gideon Levy

Sami al-Adam wants to appeal to his fellow farmers, the Israelis. Maybe they'll understand: "They know about and appreciate agriculture. All the Israeli people appreciate agriculture. Israel is first or second in the world in agriculture. A tree that you grow is like your son, it's part of you. They know how much it hurts to see an uprooted tree," he says.

Al-Adam also wants to address the mothers of Israel's soldiers and the wives of their commanders: "I want you to know that when your sons and husbands come to the West Bank, they don't come to guard the security of the State of Israel. I want to tell the mother of the soldier that he is carrying out the orders here of the extremist part of your government. I'm not saying that we don't have extremists. But you do, too, and they mustn't be the ones controlling our lives. I have nothing against the soldiers, only against the commanders who give them orders to uproot and ruin the land, with the aim of uprooting the people from the land. Your sons did not train for three years in order to uproot and ruin, rather to safeguard the land."

And to all Israelis, al-Adam says: "Our neighbors are not the Europeans or the Americans. You are our neighbors and we have to watch out for one another. We're living here and not hurting anyone. For years I brought up my children to live together , telling them we have to live together, and now they don't believe me anymore." The farmer says these things while standing amid the ruins of his land, which he had worked and nurtured for two years, having transformed the rocky ground into fruit orchards and fields of vegetables and grains. But it was short-lived: A few weeks ago, bulldozers dispatched by the Civil Administration showed up and destroyed all of his fields and his neighbors'. There went the grapevines and the young fruit trees - all uprooted. The magnificent terraces al-Adam had built were destroyed along with the wells they had dug. Just a few days before Tu Bishvat, Jewish Arbor Day, Israel showed them just how much regard it really has for trees.

The European Union had provided generous aid to these farmers in Beit Ula as part of an extensive development project covering almost 100 dunams (25 acres). The farmers invested their own money and much toil in the project, but in the end, all it took was a few hours of work by the Civil Administration's bulldozers - accompanied by foreign workers hired as an auxiliary destructive force for Israel - to trample it into oblivion.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952257.html