2 protesters, 1 border guard hurt in Naalin riot
Leftists, Palestinians claim presence in village due to olive harvest; IDF says almost half of group left harvest in order to throw stones at IDF, border guards
Two protesters were injured and three others, including activist Jonathan Pollack, were arrested during altercations with IDF forces in the town of Naalin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Friday morning. During later riots, one border guard policemen was injured by violent protesters.
In the morning, IDF forces forcefully dispersed a group of about a hundred leftists, accompanied by about the same number of Palestinian residents of Naalin, who had planned an olive harvest Friday morning.
The protesters claimed that they had coordinated the harvest in advance, via the security coordinator in Ramallah and said that the forces had attempted even prior to the beginning of the harvest, using tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
IDF reports confirm that crowd dispersal tactics were used, but according to their report, the harvest began quietly and was then disrupted when some 80 of the protesters – almost half of those meant to harvest – left the olive trees and began throwing stones at IDF and border guard forces along the fence.
"In such a situation, it was impossible to continue with the harvest," said IDF sources. They added that the three protesters were arrested after they tried to attack border guards.
Prior to Friday's altercations, many olive harvests took place in the West Bank in the past week without incident. In previous years, settlers occasionally damaged Palestinian olive trees and, as such, IDF forces were deployed across the West Bank in order to protect harvesters.
West Bank officials conceded the improved security state of the harvesters, but said that not enough permits had been granted to allow Palestinian farmers to reach lands across the security fence. They claimed that IDF forces were delaying the process.
Efrat Weiss contributed to this report
