Zionism 101: Making the Desert Bloom

"You don't simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away. I prefer to advocate a more positive policy... to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave." Ariel Sharon, The Times, 24/8/88

"Today [Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad] says the olive tree is fundamental to Palestinians, likening attacks on them to 'terrorism'. 'The youngest olive tree here [in Turmus Ayya] is older than the oldest (Jewish) settlement', he says. 'People say we don't know who the settlers are but the settlers have an address and it is called the government of Israel'. Next to him, Robert Serry of the UN adds: 'In recent weeks in this village alone, settler extremists have destroyed hundreds of trees by poison or by knocking them down. The same story can be told by villagers in many other places. I am appalled at acts of destruction of olive trees and farmlands, desecration of mosques and violence against civilians'. The Australian drove to see dozens of small trees just opposite an illegal Jewish outpost. At the base of almost every tree are two or three drilled holes. The trees have died. At another field, much older trees have four, sometimes five, holes. So fresh is the killing the trees are only beginning to die. Liquid stains from a foul-smelling substance can still be seen. In the field above, the same story. Row after row of poisoned trees. Probably 100, all dying. Settlers say there is no evidence they are responsible, but it would be difficult for Palestinians to be doing the killing as the Israeli army permits many of them to enter their groves only twice a year - planting and harvesting time." (Olive branch out of question as Palestinians see their trees die, John Lyons, The Australian, 1/11/10)