It is not international media and NGOs, it's the truth that hurts you Mr. Ha’ivri .

I am not sure where Mr. Ha'ivri got his information from. He is trying to disprove Arab ownership of land and portray the settlers as rightful owners. No Sir. All of your propaganda and disinformation will not change the fact that the Arabs have cultivated this land, they have planted and nurtured the olive trees and the settlers are a cancerous bunch of rabid gangsters who were implanted in the land of Palestine and are aided and abated by the Israeli government and the IDF.

nm

...international "peace" organizations in Israel derive their existence from continued conflict." i agree, totally correct. and the longer this conflict goes on, the worse things get. and this on all levels. it spreads at every aspects of life and thinking. domestically, internationally. things are totally screwed in peoples minds, every side, every nationality, religion... its as a "virtual" realtiy is growing somehow - everywhere... mainly, its the time which nutures this. the conflict has to be solved asap. ...and the worst source of conflict - the settlements - have to stop immediately. now.

on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said: The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

It should be noted that David Ha’irvi is a devotee of Kahane and has previously arrested for ‘celebrating’ the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and has also been convicted for incitement to racism. As is typical with such extreme and rightwing illegal settlers Ha’irvi totally ignores the widely documented acts of violence committed by his fellow illegal settlers. He also ignores the simple fact that the settlers who have established settlements in the Palestinian WB have done so *illegally* ie: without having actual ownership deeds to the land that they built on. In light of this simple fact it is highly amusing to read Ha’irvi questioning the Palestinian “legal ownership of the farmlands”! It should also be noted that the dreadful hasbara that Ha’irvi peppers his article with can readily be rubbished. For example his claim that “In fact, vast areas of olive groves in Samaria are not private property” is negated by the very simple fact that Palestinians have for decades maintained olive groves on their land for the simple reason that if they didn’t they would lose their land under the ‘three year rule’. Private land in the WB is divided into two categories: 1) Land registered before 1967 2) Cultivated land which has been maintained for over 10 years under the Ottoman system Palestinian private ownership which fall into these two categories has been documented and if Ha’irvi has any questions about which Palestinian family owns which land he can check these public records, Another fact that Ha’irvi obviously ignores because it would destroy the essence of his hasbara is that the illegal Israeli settlements have been built on substantial amounts of private Palestinian land. This fact has been documented by a whole slew of organizations eg: The World Bank, Peace Now, B’Tselem, etc. In short Ha’irvi’s lame attempt to cast uncertainty over Palestinian land ownership in the WB is like a family of squatters moving into a neighborhood in Berlin and questioning whether or not the local German residents have the deeds to their houses.

Do you agree that agricultural terrorism like uprooting trees and vines should be prevented by letting the army immediately shoot to kill the perpetrator is, even if he is a religious Jew? I agree, but you won't because you know that Ha'ivri is right and all agricultural terrorism is done by your side.

I for one have first hand knowledge of this phenomenon where the press are forewarned of events and have the choice of preventing loss of life or waiting for some juicy pictures. A good example is the tragedy at Bet Lid where 21 teenagers were massacred by 2 suicide murderers. I was filmed, as the first medically trained person to arrive at the scene, treating dying kids 2.5 minutes after the second bomb went off! I can well believe this articles writers assessment of the mentality of NGO personnel, especially as most of them in this part of the world originate from the neighboring countries the obvious loyalty issues.

The fact that most of the West Bank has been a dilapidated, depopulated desert with few wandering Bedouin tribes who occasionally put down their tents to settle a few areas around springs since the Romans expelled the lands rightfull owners as punishment for rebellion seems to be purposely ignored by Salma and Cynic (as well as most of the world). Proof of this can be found in numerous documents, both Jewish, Islamic and Christian, as well as archeological remains and learned papers on such. This fact is irrefutable no matter how you jump up and down and stamp your feet. Be happy that the state of Israel is willing to give you this land as a gift and allow the creation of a new people, the Palestinian people. A people that did not exist until the British decided so in the 1920's.

Thank you sir for your clarity. Truth is we Palestinians have no intention of vanishing or losing our livelihood. People here are predominantly Ynuts who have lost touch with reality! Two thumbs up to you.

By your silly logic we could say that America is illegitimate, because there was no such thing as an "American" prior to 1776..... The colonists who rose up in armed insurrection against the king were actually British not Americans... your lies can't change the fact that it is called Palestine not "Israel", and there is no Jewish people according to Professor Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University. P.S: PLO and not Zuhair Muhsin is able to speak on the Palestinians' behalf.

The Arabs, European and Israeli extremists on the far left seem to thrive on the conflict, where else would they derive an income from, they certainly aren't trying to reconcile Jews and Arabs, that's for sure, partly because their racist agenda does not see any Jewish right to our ancestral homeland.

Thank you for excellent article. It amazes me how the left refuses to acknowledge simple facts. To all of you leftist, can you please just once get the facts straight. In this case, please review the land deeds and you will see that the Arab claims are COMPLETELY FALSE!!! If you really care about the truth, why not just check the facts??

Which is that reality is the direct opposite of what is reported in the mass media: The media and NGOs report that Jews hinder Arabs harvesting their olives, which is never the case - Jews have better things to do, they have jobs and work, and besides this behavior would be decidedly un-Jewish. The opposite is true, however, and just today another story surfaced about Arabs cutting down Jewish olive trees with chain-saws. Jewish farmers are harrassed and threatened every single day out there, and nobody comes to help them, neither the press nor the police.

Finally someone stands up and tells the truth! The lies, fueled by anti-semitism, about the fine Jewish people of Shomron are absurd and abhorrent! I personally have seen many fires started by the arab residents in an attempt to destroy Jewish farmland - never saw a thing about it in the press! David Ha'Ivri speaks the truth and the whole world owes him a debt of gratitude!

Remember when Israel pulled out of the part of their land known as Gaza, and let the Arab terrorists take it over? Remember when the Arab terrorists went in and destroyed the greenhouses, and crops as their "thank you" to Israel's olive branch? Remember how the story was just a blip in the news, and then disappeared? International media, and the NGOs have 2 agendas. Money, and the end of Israel. But, no matter. Israel will be living in peace long after the international media, the NGOs, and the rest of Israel's enemies are dead and gone.

YOU HIT ON THE HEAD ! EVERY WORD, IN THIS ARTICLE IS ROCK SOLID TRUE. I WOULD ONLY ADD THAT THE PHOTO TO THE LEFT NEEDED TO SAY" IDF SOLDIERS SAFEGUARD AND PROTECT THE PALS PICKERS"

David Ha'ivri is right on in his Op-Ed Olives of Wrath. Those who call themselves "Peace Activist" in my opinion do more harm than good. There efforts cause greater resistance to peace by those who they represent. I was talking with my friend Leah Goldsmith during the olive harvest in Itamar. She said it was very hard this year because of their neighbors. Peace Groups need to learn what peace is before they can attempt to be a real hope for change. Keep up the great work David Ha'ivri!

Israel existed before 1948, the tea party was after British policy the same foul policy that created pakistan india fued and Israeli palestinian fued, there is something very distructive about British policy, in every place there were they left distruction after them, in India pakistan the british idiots forgot that there is no such thing as pakistan people they r indues who converted to islam, pakistanis and indues r the same race, the british people created nations or people who got no collective past, and that is the source of those fueds, BTW the Brits were in Iraq and "help" to creat iraq, they r the reason Sunis and shiites population kill each other they had dictator who unified them but the amerikans didn't know what their cousins did, and now reality bite back situation that existed prior to Dadam regim. those r facts.

This and past Israeli governments have been reluctant to apply the law against foreign instigators that come to Israel under the cover of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Week after week they enact the very same play along the fence, and together with anarchists and leftists, they attack Israeli police and settlers. The very same ISM foreign leaders and rioters are escorted to the airport but only to return again and again. No police record. No penalty. Only the most gentle treatment. Lee Kaplan of "Stop the ISM" was recently in Israel and tried desperately to meet with Cabinet to give them key information (names) regarding the conspiracy between terror groups and the left to destroy Israel. (INN video "'US Turning Blind Eye to Illegal ISM Activity".) He was turned down. Kaplan has passed crucial information on to the government in the past about incoming ships to Gaza, but the government failed to react. It's as if they had not heard anything and performed in the same ineffective manner every time. The ships are returned to their owners, the participants are escorted to the airport. The Marmara terrorists were treated and released!!! This government pasivity that goes back many years is rather puzzling. Particularly when one sees the "iron fist" applied to the slightest sign of resistance on the part of the settlers and compares it with the gentle touch applied to leftist and Arab inciters and troublemakers. If settlers under attack call police, they routinely end up being charged with aggression while the Arabs go free. There is an unfortunate pattern to all this. Particularly when you combine it with a clumsy and almost non-existent PR effort to improve Israel's image abroad, and the government participation in the planned partition the land, which has very enthusiastic support by some ministers in cabinet.

From Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099: "While agricultural pursuits were far from being the province of the Arab tribes, the Jews were the farmers par excellence in the northern part of the Arabian peninsula, cultivaing the land in the oases [e.g., in Wadi'l-Qura]." Paraphrasing Nilus of Rossano, a Christian monk who suffered from Arab raids, "the Arabs are not interested in production, in commerce or in farming, but only in plundering and wars." Given that "the Arabian peninsula, and especially Hijaz, [...] produced insufficient crops to satisfy the immediate needs of the Bedouin population," it is no wonder that Muhammad moved "to attack the Jews and eventually wipe out the Jewish population of [Yathrib] [...] and their property - plantations, fields and houses - was distributed by Muhammad among his followers." And yet, "During the more than four hundred years of Muslim rule [before the Crusades], the Jewish population continued to exist despite difficulties [in al-Sham, i.e. Israel]." The Jewish community survived in Hebron through the Seljuk occupation, as established by the letters of Saadia, the community's leader, and throughout the first Arab occupation, Jews and Samaritans made up most of the population of Haifa and Eilat (as Muhammad's dhimma proves), in spite of crippling taxation forced by the newcomer Arab occupiers: "We gave two thousand and five hundred gold coins until we went out of everything we had empty, naked, sad, poor, and nothing remained to a man in his house, even a dress for himself or houseware [quoting Solomon ben Judah]." Of the 20 Arab tribes that occupied Israel after the Mohammedan conquest, most arrived from Yemen, and only 2 [Banu Judham & Lakhm] lived near Israel's borders before Islam. To put this in context, the soil on which the Samarian Arabs mistreat olive trees was all stolen, confiscated, or mortgaged from Jews or Samaritans by force, taxation, or the injustice of shari'a inheritance laws, with the local cadi in Ramla often confiscating Jews' homes "on the basis of false evidence" in favor of Muslims. Further, those Arabs are not the original inhabitants, and the Israelite owners continued to live side by side with them during centuries of occupation. Arabs must make a choice: shall they acknowledge that matrilineal descent from the legendary Hagar is not a basis for inheritance, or shall they acknowledge that they stole the inheritance of their Israelite step-brothers and step-sisters?

...right wingers are the same everywhere.

And ever since Greeks invented their new gods after the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, Europe has looked at the mere existence of Jews as a "conflict" to be extinguished. You'll never see NGOs fighting for the Native Americans whose oil has been stolen by Koch Industries. Their cameras were not capturing the 6,000 civilian deaths caused by the US during the siege of Fallujah. Yet nothing riles them up more than the olive trees that the descendants of transplanted Yemenite Bedouins, whose bloodlines run from Persia to Turkish Central Asia, stole from Jews and Samaritans. If you ever wondered why Mark Twain didn't see many people in the countryside of the "Holy Land" on his tour a century ago, it's quite simple - Arabs have not known irrigation since they pillaged their first Jewish or Nabataean oasis, and the land-owning Arabo-Turkic clans like the Husaynis let the soil lie fallow until the Jews invented drip irrigation, preferring instead to secure their income from taxing the Jews of Jerusalem to the point of starvation. So don't be surprised to see Arabs sawing their olive trees to bits and blaming it on local Jews - their Bedouin and Mongol forebears never understood agriculture anyway.

Well done David Ha'Ivri for speaking out against these injustices. The fact is that anyone who looks objectively will see that the media acts as prosecution, judge and jury in Judea and Samaria. When are Jewish residents ever asked for their point of view in the aftermath of reported incidents? When are Arab claims ever questioned? And why do the media always happen to be in the right place at the right time? The truth is that for those who hate Israel and wish to demonise her, the facts are irrelevant. But for anyone objective they speak loudly and clearly.

Lets face it- anti-Semitism is big industry today. EU and Arab Oil money are behind these NGOS, peace orgs like Peace Now, Jewish Voice, and J Street. Case in point- this week UCI had another Jew-hater come to the Irvine campus promote his book about Israel's Apartheid state. Ben White, on the international lecture circuit, was paid a handsome sum to speak before the MSU and community and villify and delegitimize Israel. Notorious Jew-haters such as Norm Finkelstein, Al Malik, a Black Muslim from Oakland, and Heddy Epstein (Passenger on the Gaza "freedom" Flotiilla ,all guest speakers invited by the MSU,are paid up to $5,000 per appearance by MSU. Grants for documentaries, articles, books and other publications, university appointments, are all part of the lucrative package. Like i said, there is $$$ to be made in spreading lies and disinformation about the Jewish state. Norm Finkelstein always talks about the "Holocaust Industry"- but he is the one profiting from it, big time. His entire livelihood depends on Israel Bashing- especially since he is currently unemployed after being fired from De Paul University for his odious,extremist views about the West and israel.

They are taking one helluva beating in the name of religion & identity. Those olive groves must shake with fear whenever an Arab or Jew stops, and starts to gaze upon them.

When Zuheir Muhsein made his comment on the non-existence of the Palestinian people, he was a member of the PLO Executive Committee. He certainly should have known what he was talking about. Yasser Arafat's authorized biography plainly quotes Arafat as saying, "If there is any such thing as a Palestinian people, it is I, Yasser Arafat, who created them." Was Arafat also unable to speak on the Palestinians' behalf?

The facts in this article cannot be refuted .

These are people who have blown themselves up with the hope that it will kill Jewish women and children. They have hurt themselves hoping to hurt Jews in the process. Killing their own "holy" trees to demonize innocent Jews is their modus operandi. These Arabs are fake martyrs just like they are fake Palestinians.

Just like after the murder of Rabin, the Israeli right wingers, especially of the Jewish Orthodox variety., are busy inventing conspiracy theories: Rabin was murdered by the Shabak. The Palestinians cut their own trees. The corpses in the Qana masacre (in 2006) were frozen corpses brought there to frame the Jews. There is no end to this lunacy. By the way, any fatwa by the Rabbis of the settlements or Rabbi Yosef, will not change the basic truth: The Palestinians have been here forever. They are the people of the land. They are the Jews and Samaritans of antiquity who converted to Islam. They are legitimately here. Mr. Haivri (or whatever his name was before he changed it) is the foreign implant. And a very damaging one.