thepeoplesrecord: Illegal Israeli settlers torch Palestinian olive trees October 13, 2012 Israeli settlers have torched dozens of Palestinian olive trees in the occupied West Bank, in another attempt to target a key product of the Palestinian economy. According to local villagers, settlers torched the trees at several spots simultaneously on Saturday. Security officials say evidence pointed to an arson attack by residents of the neighboring settlement of Ee-Lai. The attack follows the cutting-down of almost 70 olive trees in the same village this past Wednesday, which was the start of the harvest season. Israeli settlers, mostly armed, regularly attack Palestinian villages and farms and set fire to their mosques, olive groves and other properties in the occupied West Bank under the so-called “price tag” policy. However, the Tel Aviv regime rarely detains the assailants. The extremists say the “price tag” attacks are carried out against any Israeli policy “to reduce the presence of settlers and settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).” The Israeli settlements are considered illegal by the UN and most countries because those territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967, and are hence seen as being subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands. Not only has the presence and continued expansion of these settlements been a major source of international criticism against Israel, but they are also considered one of the main obstacles to Middle East peace. More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem). Source This isn’t so much news as much as it is a look into one of the many oppressive realities Palestinians live through every day in occupied territories.