West Bank farmers beset by a faceless menace

In the occupied West Bank, even plants can become political targets, writes Jason Koutsoukis.

THE last time Jewish settlers attacked 64-year-old Rahma Najjar's farm in the occupied West Bank was two weeks ago.

''They came down from the settlement of Yizhar,'' she told The Age. ''Mostly they come at night, but this was during the day. They cut the olive trees, or set fire to them, they try to destroy our crops or the fences.''

Ms Najjar says the settlers, who are often masked, sometimes stone the house. Once a petrol bomb set fire to a shed.

She compares the attacks to raids by the Ku Klux Klan in the segregation-era United States.

''They come masked, so we don't know who they are, and they come in large groups, running around the house, screaming things at us, telling us to leave,'' she says.

Ms Najjar's farm, home to 14 people, is in a valley outside the Palestinian village of Burin.

Overlooking the valley are the settlements of Yizhar and Bracha, home to some of the more extreme Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Despite her bitterness at the attacks, which she says began in 2000 during the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, Ms Najjar praises the efforts of Israel Defence Forces troops to protect her.

''As soon as an attack starts, we call the DCO (District Command Office), and they come,'' she says. ''I believe they feel towards the settlers like I do, but no one is ever really punished for what they do.''

Asked about the possibility of a Palestinian state, Ms Najjar says it is her dream. ''We pray for this, but I don't believe it will happen.''

At the beginning of this year, Mohammed Ziben sowed 23 hectares of wheat in his fields near the Najjar farm. A father of six, Mr Ziben employed about 10 workers to help with the harvest in late May.

''As we work, we collect the wheat into small mounds by the side of the fields,'' he says. ''By the time we were finished the settlers came and set fire to the mounds by pouring petrol onto them.''

Mr Ziben lost the whole crop, which he estimated at about $A9500 in value.

Mr Ziben has several hectares of olive trees, which are now enclosed by the boundaries of the Yizhar settlement.

Access to the trees must be arranged through the IDF to protect him from attacks by the settlers.

''This year [the settlers] have tried to poison the trees with chemicals,'' Mr Ziben says.

Exactly what was used to poison the trees is being investigated by B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, which has better access to Mr Ziben's olive groves than he does.

On the day The Age spoke to Rahma Najjar, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad came to Burin to officially open a new road leading from the village to Route 60, the main highway that runs the length of the West Bank.

The new road was hung with banners calling on the Palestinian Authority to do more to protect the villagers against the settlers.

Speaking to The Age, Dr Fayyad said there was little action he could take against the settlers themselves.

''This is one of the best arguments in favour of our sovereignty, so that we can offer basic protections to our people,'' he said. ''Nevertheless, we are determined to shame the Israeli Government.

''We ask [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu to bring a stop to these senseless strikes on innocent people.''

Source: The Age