<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Hasbara Lie Exposed: &#8220;Staged&#8221; Settler Violence is Actually Tree Pruning | Sabbah&nbsp;Report]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="headline_meta">by <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn" rel="nofollow" href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/author/guest-post/">Guest Post</a></span> on <abbr class="published" title="2010-11-03">November 3, 2010</abbr></p>
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<p><strong>By Maggie Sager * | <a href="http://www.sabbah.biz/">Sabbah Report</a> | <a href="http://www.sabbah.biz/">www.sabbah.biz</a></strong></p>
<p><img class="alignright : frame" src="https://i0.wp.com/lh5.ggpht.com/_8ZLZsV89Ns0/TNGLZPWD1VI/AAAAAAAAA2k/7MS5zzy8EEU/s400/5%2691.jpg" alt="" width="291" height="400" />In a recent <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3976976,00.html" target="_blank">Ynet News story</a>,  a news group operating within West Bank settlements witnessed “Arabs  and Leftists” staging an event in which their olive trees were  vandalized, so as to further demonize settlers. According to the piece:</p>
<blockquote><p>The  photos, taken by members of the Tazpit Unit, were shot on Palestinian  land Friday, near the Neveh Tzuf settlement. The images allegedly show  Palestinians and left-wing activists cutting down Palestinian olive  trees using an electric saw.</p>
<p>Many so-called ‘Price Tag&#8217; acts  targeting Palestinians were recorded in the last few weeks, and the  settlers now claim they were staged by the Palestinians themselves and  intended to harm the settlers&#8217; image.</p>
<p>Tazpit photographer Ehud  Amiton, who documented the vandalism act on Friday, says that this is  exactly what can be seen in his images.</p></blockquote>
<p>The article offers the following images to attest to the accusation:</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter : frame" src="https://i2.wp.com/lh4.ggpht.com/_8ZLZsV89Ns0/TNGLYxN7iKI/AAAAAAAAA2U/u26l_saSj28/s800/3%2691.jpg" alt="" width="408" height="238" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter : frame" src="https://i0.wp.com/lh3.ggpht.com/_8ZLZsV89Ns0/TNGLYyCCBwI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/N_hf2rrcFJE/s800/2_wh.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="350" /></p>
<p>From  this evidence we are expected to deduce that these men could possibly  be “leftists” (is it that they carry their saws in an apologetic,  bleeding-heart liberal sort of way?), and that they attempted to  perpetrate this ruse in broad daylight, with no apparent interest in  hiding their activity. We are expected to conclude that, while staging  the crime, they thought it best to place the branches they cleanly sawed  from their olive trees in neat piles, perhaps as a way of implicitly  commending settlers for their organizational skills.</p>
<p>We are also  expected to suspend our knowledge of the recent culmination of the olive  harvest, and of the proper procedures for the maintenance of  post-harvest trees.</p>
<p>Here is another example of staged settler violence:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter : frame" src="https://i0.wp.com/lh6.ggpht.com/_8ZLZsV89Ns0/TNGLZFXobFI/AAAAAAAAA2s/xjVj00LcZps/s800/olive%20branch%20pile.JPG" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></p>
<p>Okay,  I lied. It is actually a picture of pruned olive branches from an  Italian grove immediately after the harvest season. You can find it <a href="http://montisabini.blogspot.com/2010/04/pruning-olive-trees.html">here</a>, in a blog dedicated to olive oil and wine from the Sabine Hills in Italy. The post explains:</p>
<blockquote><p>Pruning  olive trees can take place anytime from the Autumn to early spring,  depending on factors such as the type of olive, the yield of the  previous year and the condition of the tree.</p>
<p>The pruned branches  are then collected into piles between the trees. The leaves are then  either burnt, or used to produce cosmetics or complimentary health  remedies.</p></blockquote>
<p>As readers, we are also expected to disregard <span id="apture_prvw1" class="aptureLink "><span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-position:right -1547px;"> </span><a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyvMm9LW2-4">this video</a></span>, posted by the creator of <a href="http://olive-abacus.com/About.html" target="_blank">Olive Abacus</a>, a “permanent online olive information repository” dedicated to “shedding light on all issues related to olives.”<br />
In the video’s first seconds our narrator “Olive Branche” illuminates:</p>
<blockquote><p>Each  year, immediately after the olive harvest in Andalucía, Spain, the  trees are pruned of their older branches making way for the younger,  more productive ones. As an olive branch ages, it becomes less  productive, requiring pruning. Pruning allows more sunlight into more  areas of the tree. It also increases the quality and quantity of fruit  the tree produces.</p></blockquote>
<p>The video then cuts to an image of  a masked man with a chainsaw, cutting olive branches and placing them  to the side. At 2:56 we are shown neat piles of branches (where have we  seen this before?), which will then be disposed of.</p>
<p>In essence, we  are expected to be utterly devoid of critical thought in order to  believe such a wild story. We are supposed to ignore the fact that  settler violence against Palestinians is <a href="http://www.resistingoccupation.com/2010/10/settler-violence-in-occupied-west-bank.html" target="_blank">well documented</a> by human rights organizations. We are called upon, instead, to believe  that Palestinians are actually victimizing themselves, despite the fact  that they reap nothing from such action. <a href="http://www.yesh-din.org/site/index.php?page=summary&amp;lang=en" target="_blank">No arrests are made</a> in connection with violence against Palestinian property. Police rarely  even go through the motions of investigation, and if they do so,  perpetrators are never brought to justice.</p>
<p>For most families, they  are lucky if they even have access to their farm land, considering  blockage by ever-encroaching settlements and the <a href="http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-tvnews-170210%21OpenDocument" target="_blank">security apparatus</a> they bring along. When they are allowed onto their own land, these  olives can be the only source of income they have. If no one compensates  them for their losses, if no one but a few human rights organizations  and activists even care to notice this long history of abuse, and if  abusers are systematically absolved of responsibility, what, exactly, do  those who “staged” this vandalism stand to gain? As readers, we must  stifle these questions. We wouldn’t want to be construed as “leftists”  now would we?</p>
<p><em>* Maggie Sager is currently a student at Mills College in Oakland, California. You can find her work at <a href="http://resistingoccupation.blogspot.com/">Resisting Occupation</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/11/03/hasbara-exposed-staged-settler-violence/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SabbahsBlog+%28Sabbah+Report%29">Hasbara Lie Exposed: &#8220;Staged&#8221; Settler Violence is Actually Tree Pruning | Sabbah Report</a>.</p>
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