Israeli Squatters go wild in Israeli-Occupied Palestinian West Bank, attacking Palestinians, Cars, Shops and Olive Orchards

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday evening and Sunday, the Israeli-Occupied Palestinian West Bank descended into an orgy of violence on the part of militant Israeli squatters on private Palestinian land, with the Palestine Authority recording 144 squatter attacks, according to Kamil Ibrahim, reporting from Jerusalem for al-Ra’i.

Each act of vandalism or violence by itself seems banal, but in aggregate they point to a low intensity civil war that has been fought out in the Occupied West Bank for decades but is now becoming fiercer.

The Palestinian trade unions condemned Israeli actions, saying that they are the death knell of peace..

Al-Watan reports that at the villages of Aqraba and Majdel near Nablus, Israel squatters swooped in and uprooted 200 olive trees from the orchards of local Palestinian farmers. Olives are among the most important crops for Palestinians and the source of the lion’s share of what wealth they have. Israelis have attacked these olive trees for decades and just since 2010 are estimated to have destroyed 100,000 of them.

Ibrahim writes that in Turmus Ayya Israeli squatters, supported by the Israeli military, closed the main road. Then the squatters set fire to a car, which spread to a house that burned down.

In Hebron, a mob of angry squatters from Kirya Arba and other squatter settlements on Palestinian land threw rocks at cars, causing substantial property damage, and fired gunshots at Palestinian homes.

In the northern Jordan valley, squatters fell upon vegetable stalls at the entrance to the villages of Ein al-Baida and Bardala and destroyed them and ruined the produce. No vegetables for you!

At Huwara near Nablus squatters attacked automobiles and shops with rocks, and damaged cars in another nearby hamlet.

In the south of Bethlehem, militant Israeli squatters on local Palestinian-owned land attacked homes and automobiles and sprayed pepper spray on a Palestinian.

At Masafer Yata, squatters brought their livestock to graze on planted Palestinian fields, and attacked a young man, beating him badly.

Israeli security forces also made sweeps, arresting dozens of youths, especially from East Jerusalem. One man was sentenced to 6 months of administrative detention, which means the Israelis did not have enough evidence to try him in court. “Administrative detention,” or imprisonment without trial or habeas corpus, is a common tool of the Israeli apartheid regime.