A bitter harvest in the occupied West Bank

Re Louis Theroux’s article (If you were shocked by my film on Israeli settlers in the West Bank, you haven’t been paying attention, 10 May), some years back I had a brief conversation with Daniella Weiss in an olive grove on the hillside near the settlement of Kedumim. It was during a standoff between Israeli settlers, the Israeli army and the Palestinian farmers who owned the land we were helping to harvest.

She said the land was “empty” when Kedumim was established in 1975, and that the well-established old olive trees were wild. I pointed out that they were growing in well-spaced rows. “They’re wild,” she replied. I noted that the hillside was terraced with stones. “They’re wild,” she repeated. I gave up discussing further. Louis Theroux, in his excellent film, summed her up well with a single word: “sociopathic”.

We no longer go to help harvest those lands as they have been stolen by settlers. Weiss has the full support of the Israeli government. She and the settlers have access to automatic weapons and the protection of the Israeli army. The Palestinians have no protection whatsoever. Anyone with an ounce of humanity can see which side we should be supporting.
Maggie Foyer
Founder, The Olive Harvest Trust

• Louis Theroux’s documentary will have been achingly familiar to us Northern Irish. It is no surprise that our divided communities identify with one side or the other, and both Palestinian and Israeli flags are widely flown here, each calling out that we know your pain and we’re on your side. One can’t make like-for-like comparisons, but the story of a settler community that pushes the other aside but doesn’t completely succeed in that, and an incumbent community that is resentful and oppressed, is understood here.

Also understood is that it plays out over centuries, not years. Maybe there are lessons too, as we work through our peace and reconciliation process. We’re a more hopeful place now, even if there is still a few hundred years to go.
Paul Healy
Derry

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