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Jewish Voice for Liberation

Double standards or dehumanisation?

Published by Leah Levane
Israeli settlers and soldiers during an attack on Palestinian harvesters with live ammunition, batons and stones on the first day of the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Beita, 10 October 2025. Several Palestinians and solidarity activists were injured, including journalists, among them the Activestills photographer, Wahaj Bani Moufleh. Four cars were set on fire. The olive harvest comes at a time of an unprecedented surge in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

JVL Introduction

Amira Hass asks us to imagine that the violence by Jewish Israelis (soldiers and settlers) was happening to Jew in New York or London.  The relentless attacks, restrictions, demolitions and more have been ramped up exponentially since October 7th 2023 but have been going on for decades.

As Hass says, things get worse during the olive harvest season, now underway.  The Center for Jewish Nonviolence posted this on Facebook. “…Another full day of harvesting olives as well as a fig tree…We had no encounters with the army or the settlers today, but the army left its mark…(they) raided the village — for no reason other than to exert power and control. The army tear-gassed the site of the olive presses in the center of the village, where olives are pressed into olive oil. Farmers were trapped inside for some time…

One of the groups today was composed of 5 internationals “ready to run at a moment’s notice in case settlers came to attack. They harvested olives on a Palestinian plot of land close to an illegal Israeli settlement—so close that the farmers had not dared reach that plot since October 2023…I asked a friend of mine who was in that group for a picture to post here. He told he they were working so fast that they had no time to take pictures.
This is a victory. Every plot of land harvested is a plot of land not abandoned to the Israeli occupation.”

This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Wed 22 Oct 2025. Read the original here.

If the Hilltop Youth Were in New York City, Attacking Jews, Would the Israeli Media Care?

Israeli indifference to perpetual settler violence against West Bank Palestinians, which spikes every year during the olive harvest, demonstrates how Israelis – outraged by anti-semitic incidents abroad – are incapable of empathizing with Palestinians

by Amira Hass, Ha'aretz

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