There’s been a fair amount of ink spilled lately over the disruption of the olive harvest and the destruction of olive trees in Israel. Most of the time, settlers are blamed for impeding the livelihood of Palestinian Arabs, and in some cases that might even be true. But it should be noted that not all olive trees destroyed are actually cut down by settlers. Arabs have cut down olive trees belonging to Jews, and sometimes have even cut down their own trees, blaming settlers in order to fuel the ongoing media campaign against Israel and, in a hypocritical twist, to collect compensation from the Israeli government. (Even Ynet thought it was plausible enough to post an article about it.)
Destruction of olive trees is a crime. The Torah teaches that even in time of war (which many would argue this is) it is not permitted to cut down the enemy’s fruit trees. (Whether the Koran contains any such statute I am not in a position to say.) Those who do it, Jewish or Arab, should be prosecuted according to the law.
The annual olive harvest media smear circus is a complicated one. Attacks on property and person are part of an ongoing jockeying for ownership that is taking place in the West Bank. Arab squatters attempt to move in and claim areas abandoned by the IDF (such as Shdema and Adurayim), shoot Israeli motorists on the roads (sometimes killing them) and attack Jews who seek to cultivate state land. Jews build houses in settlements and attempt to connect Jewish communities for security by legally planting on state lands. In Netzer, located between Elazar and Alon Shvut (Jewish towns) in Gush Etzion, a group of Jews plowed and planted a 10-dunam area with olive trees, vines, and pomegranate trees. As soon as the Jews planted the vines and were laying the irrigation hoses, a group of Arabs came, began shouting that the land belonged to them, shoved the Jews, and uprooted the vines. The IDF and Civil Administration were called and upon arriving, declared the land to be state land. Soon after, the Jews planted large olive trees at Netzer. Arabs came and uprooted the trees. The Jews replanted the trees. Arabs came with saws and axes and cut down three trees before being stopped by a group of activists. The Arabs fled before the IDF arrived. The saga continues.
The media claims that settler destruction of Arab property is part of a “price tag” campaign whereby settlers exact a price for the Israeli government’s plans to dismantle settlements or give away land. Arabs consistently blame Jews for property damage and vandalism without providing any evidence of who carried out the destruction, and the media take these accusations at face value, without question.
On the other hand, one could argue that Arabs have had a “price tag” campaign going since the 1920s when they decided to assess a penalty to Jews for the crime of living here. (Never mind that the whole reason Arabs from nearby lands flocked to Ottoman Palestine was because Jews were arriving and creating an economy that offered better opportunities the ones they were living in.) That campaign has taken the form of open war, terrorism, and delegitimization. It has created a climate in which anti-Semitism dons a mask of “anti-Zionism,” Jewish history is denied, hatred is taught in schools that in any other country would be unlawful, and a sovereign state can be attacked physically and in the media without question or reproof.
The olive tree wars are wasteful and a hillul Hashem, but they do have one mitigating factor: it’s trees, not people, being cut down.
Shimshonit 
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