San Francisco Chronicle · 23 October 2002
CP-2002-090
Settlers' attacks disrupt harvest in West Bank
Palestinian farmers say olive trees have been destroyed
By Danielle Haas / CHRONICLE FOREIGN SERVICE
Transcribed from the clipping
TUWANI, West Bank — A series of attacks by Jewish settlers has disrupted Palestinian farmers' olive harvest in the West Bank and added a new level of tension to the standoff in the region. Most of the settlers involved are squatters on hilltops that are adjacent to Palestinian agricultural lands.
They are accused by Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups of cutting down and burning olive trees, stealing the crop and provoking violent incidents. One death has occurred so far. On Oct.
6, Hani Minyeh, a 22-year-old grocery store clerk in the village of Aqraba, was killed when settlers from the Jewish community of Itamar, near Nablus, fired on a group of olive pickers. Police seized six weapons, arrested one settler and questioned six others, but all were later released and no charges were filed.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said ballistic checks were being run on the bullet that killed Minyeh and added that the case was being taken “very seriously.” “It's very difficult to do (proper) policing in a war zone,” he complained.
An incident nearly as troubling took place on Sunday, when masked settlers believed to be living in the outpost known as Adi'ad disrupted an olive harvest and began shooting in the air and later at the legs of the Palestinian pickers.
The settlers then set fire to seven cars belonging to residents of the Palestinian village of Turmous-Aya, on the road connecting Ramallah and Nablus. Around 200 villagers ran out to the olive groves and brawled with the settlers until police arrived and fired into the air to disperse the two sides. Several settlers were arrested.
Cite this clipping
"Settlers' attacks disrupt harvest in West Bank," San Francisco Chronicle, 23 October 2002. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2002-090. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2002-090
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
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Read in: The olive harvest, and who the paper says owns the ground
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