Sunday, August 29, 2021
Elder of ZiyonOn 26 June 2021, at around 4:00 P.M., we suddenly noticed settlers coming towards us. The women and children on the farm were terrified. We tried to drive the settlers away to defend our families, and tried to protect the flock, tents and fodder as best as we could. A few dozen guys from the area who heard what was happening came to help us fight them.The settlers torched a car we used for transporting things inside the farm, well as two tons of barley for feeding the flock (a ton costs about 17,000 shekels [~5,2450 USD]), and about 50 sheaves of straw that were also intended for the flock (every sheaf costs 50 shekels [~15 USD]). They also injured two goats whose legs got broken.
June 26 was a Saturday. B'Tselem claims that the Jews cam from Adei Ad, an outpost founded by religious Jews. While it is possible that Jews violate the Shabbat and torch Arab fields as they take their Shabbat walks, it seems unlikely.
I could not find any article in Arab media about this, although there were reports of settlers attacking the same area three days later, supposedly burning fields with fires in a suspiciously straight line that would not be the most efficient way to destroy a field.
B'Tselem's report on the latter incident ignored the allegations of fires and instead claimed that the settlers uprooted 75 olive trees. Olive trees are notoriously hard to uproot or even cut down.
I'm not saying that Jews don't attack Arab fields sometimes - they certainly do. Arabs also regularly attack Jewish-owned fields, something that no international NGOs ever report on.
But it appears that many of these attacks on Arab property are false reports, and B'Tselem doesn't even pretend to verify the facts, parroting the Arab claims no matter how dubious.
(h/t Shaun Sacks)
