Founder of Breaking the Silence: Israeli settlers poisoning Palestinian water

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23. It's unbelievable that anyone would try to defend the extremist settlers...

The settlers themselves are open about what they see as their duty to stop Palestinians from harvesting olives. Here's two videos....

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And an article from a few years ago where settlers admit to the destruction. I wonder if Shira thinks they're liars or something. Like you pointed out, the extremists have no qualms in carrying out even worse violence than damaging and destroying trees, so I'm not sure why anyone would try to portray them as innocent victims of a smear campaign.

The people of Sawiya estimate that 250 trees, the income for 10 extended families, were damaged or destroyed. But as it is too dangerous to approach the settlement, they cannot count precisely.

Settlers at Eli declined to be interviewed, but other settlers in the area have justified driving Palestinians from their land by saying they threaten security. Eli and nearby Yitzhar have been attacked over the past three years, and families have been murdered in other nearby settlements.

But as Yitzhar's spokesman, Yossi Peli, readily admits, the settlers' intent goes beyond security. "The trees grow back and ultimately we hope to harvest them in the place of the unwanted inhabitants of the area," he said.

Men from Yitzhar, a settlement with a history of violence against Palestinians, have terrorised olive pickers with guns and clubs and destroyed hundreds of trees. In one incident, they beat a 70-year-old man, stripped him and forced him to walk back to his village naked.

The destruction of trees has drawn fire from Mr Sharon and the Yesha council, which represents settlers. But the latter qualified its criticism by saying that, while wrecking trees is wrong, it is acceptable for settlers to loot the olive crop - because Jews are entitled to harvest the produce of non-Jews in what the council defines as the "Land of Israel".

One Israeli Labor MP, Ephraim Sneh, visited the scene and blamed the Government for the incidents. "Who did this? The residents of Hilltop 725," he said. "That is a settlement outpost the Government of Israel undertook to remove, but didn't; now the army is forced to guard it. We're talking about a group who live at the state's expense, with the state's protection, and do things no Jew can accept."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/14/1068674380631.html

Apparently even Sharon and the Yesha council were wrong according to Shira...

Anyway, this 'show a pic of it happening or it didn't happen!' tactic runs both ways. From now on, if that poster doesn't provide video evidence of any claim they make, we can all discard it just like they have with the fact that everyone knows, which is that extremist settlers do target olive harvests...