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Under the Cover of the Olive Harvest: Arabs Prepared an Attack Against Israeli Soldiers

In spite of local residents' pleas, the security threat, and ongoing terrorist attacks, the IDF continues to approve harvesting adjacent to Jewish settlements

  • כ"ח תשרי תשפ"ה - 12:35 30/10/2024
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Harvesting in the Shiloh Valley. Illustration (TPS) (TPS)
Harvesting in the Shiloh Valley. Illustration (TPS) (TPS)

Terrorism under the cover of the olive harvest: Israeli military forces operating yesterday (Sunday) in the area of the settlement of Oz Zion noticed a group of Arab youths from the village of Burqa approaching the settlement holding bags of olives that they were supposedly harvesting. The group aroused the soldiers’ suspicions; as the soldiers approached, they fled, abandoning their bags of olives.

A search of one of the bags uncovered glass bottles filled with paint, suspected to have been intended for use against IDF forces. Notably, this event took place close to a location from which stones and paint bottles are regularly thrown at IDF forces. This is but one of many incidents in which Arabs exploit the olive harvest for security-related provocations.

Just a few days ago, during the Sukkot holiday, about a hundred Arab activists, foreign nationals, and Israeli left-wing activists from the Fazaa campaign, together with the village council of Burqa and residents from other nearby villages, gathered at the nearby Tzur Harel hill to provoke a clash with IDF forces.

For reasons that remain unclear, the IDF allowed the event to proceed and only pushed back the rioters immediately outside the neighborhood.

On Yom Kippur, as well, when the residents of the settlement of Malachei Hashalom gathered to pray, the IDF allowed Arabs to harvest olives just outside the settlement without alerting the residents, who were surprised to see hundreds of Arabs approaching the settlement. "It almost ended with hundreds of Arabs inside the settlement."

The District Coordination and Liaison Office (DCL) Feeds the IDF False Information

Last year, shortly after the start of the current war, we revealed that the DCL was providing false information to the Israeli army to inflate the importance of the olive harvest.

A document obtained by HaKol HaYehudi titled "The Olive Harvest Season - 2023 Information Sheet for Israeli Forces," states that "the olive sector is considered the Palestinians’ main source of livelihood, with the primary use being production of olive oil (87%) and table olives (13%)." And yet the real data, publicized by HaKol HaYehudi reveals that the olive harvest is a marginal component in the Palestinian Authority's economy. According to data published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics,the entire agricultural sector contributes only a small percentage to the GDP of the Palestinian economy in Judea and Samaria, amounting to no more than 10 percent.

Even an official EU report states that "Olive production composes as much as 25 percent of the total value of Palestinian agricultural output," meaning that the DCL’s claim that the olive harvest is the primary livelihood for Palestinians in the West Bank is not substantiated by any measure.

Acting on the premises laid out in the DCL's statements, the IDF Central Command directed soldiers to permit olive harvesting "until the last olive." This decision sparked considerable backlash from residents of Judea and Samaria, among them Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan, who warned that this allowance poses a significant security risk, especially during wartime.

We reached out to the Civil Administration, which oversees the DCL, in an attempt to understand the source of the data cited in their report, but other than a general response affirming that the olive harvest is underway, we received no substantive response to our inquiries.

In an article for JOKOPOST.COM, Michael Sharon, a lecturer at the Wingate College Homeland Security Academy, analyzes the failure to defend Israel’s Gaza border and explains that the same phenomenon is also unfolding within Judea and Samaria.

Sharon contends that years of neglect toward the activities of Hamas terrorists’ and their supporters enabled the planning of the October 7th attack: "Israel's lack of response to the presence of Palestinian demonstrations and Palestinian farmers–some of whom were also terrorists–near the security fence, created a new permissive space for planning the next stage of battle. The establishment of a routine, predictable response to the enemy’s activity provided a comfortable space for them to study Israeli forces and gather intelligence prior to combat."

Last year, the olive harvest took place shortly after the outbreak of the war, despite residents’ protests, though in certain cases the complaints of residents succeeded in preventing the harvests’ proximity to settlements.

"I cannot understand a general who, in the midst of a war when we are all pushed to our limits, would choose to redirect dozens of soldiers from critical operational military duties to oversee such an event. These gatherings not only present a clear threat, with hundreds of local Arab villagers crossing the fence beyond our capacity to supervise them, but also siphons significant resources away from essential defensive and offensive operations in favor of those villagers, whose animosity and murderous intentions have been demonstrated time and time again," remarked a soldier assigned to guard the harvest under the direction of former Central Command Chief, Yehuda Fuchs.

In the context of this discussion, it is important to recall HaKol HaYehudi’s recent investigation into "the agricultural intifada," in which we revealed how Hamas, assisted by foreign foundations, funds the planting of olive trees in Judea and Samaria, particularly in Area C and areas near settlements and the border fence.

This allows terrorist organizations to secure advanced positions for observation and shooting–a phenomenon which the IDF continually avoids exposing.

 

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