Three left-wing activists arrested in Hebron

Settlers attack photographer during olive harvest; Marzel: Left-wing activists taunted settlers.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, AP
olive harvesting in w bank 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
olive harvesting in w bank 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Border police arrested three left-wing activists in Hebron who refused to leave an olive grove in the Tel Rumaida neighborhood after arriving on Saturday morning to help Palestinian families in the area with their olive harvest. According to the police, the area in the Israeli-controlled portion of Hebron was a closed military zone and the activists did not have permission to be there. They had not coordinated their activity either with the police or with the IDF, the police said. The IDF further charged that the activists' presence provoked existing tensions in the area between settlers and Palestinians. But according to a member of the left-wing Israeli group Tayush, which brought more than 20 volunteers to Hebron to help with the olive harvest, the land was private and they did not need to seek permission from the police or the IDF to be there. The volunteers had been invited by the Palestinians who owned the groves to come help with the harvest, the volunteer said. Still upon arrival, they did check in with the area security forces, he said. One volunteer, Shahaf Pollachov, said that everything was peaceful, until about 10:30 a.m. when a Palestinian photographer who was with them was attacked by four young male settlers who were passing by the grove. The incident, filmed by AP Television News, shows four Jewish men punching and kicking the photographer, Abed Hashlamoun of the EPA news agency. Hashlamoun said he was taking pictures of the men when he was attacked. One of the settlers snatched his camera but dropped it after a foreign human rights activist tried to retrieve it, he said. The footage shows a settler punching a 53-year-old British woman in the face as she tries to snatch a camera from him. The APTN footage shows Hashlamoun lobbing a rock at one of the settlers after he was assaulted. Nobody was seriously wounded in the scuffle. The footage shows Israeli soldiers quickly breaking up the brawl and allowing the youths to walk away. Police are investigating the matter, but have not arrested any settlers in connection with the incident. According to the Tayush representative, the soldiers then declared the area a closed military zone and asked the volunteers to leave. Three refused and continued harvesting, he said. He charged that the soldiers pulled one of the volunteers out of a tree and dragged another one on the ground for about 50 meters. Spokesmen for Hebron's Jewish community had harsh comments to make Saturday night about the presence of the left-wing activists in the city's olive groves, a move which they said was intended solely to provoke violence. Right-wing activist Baruch Marzel said the cameras did not show the whole story and that the activists had taunted the settlers. Orit Struck said she had filed a complaint with the police against the activists and that she called on them to issue restraining orders against left-wing activists to prevent them from entering the city. The Palestinians do not need left-wing activists to protect them from safely harvesting their olives, she said. Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.