Some violence is even more hidden

Yesh Gvul, a support group for members of the Israeli military who refuse to serve in the occupied territories (Its slogan is "There are things that decent people don't do.), sent out an email alert on Monday involving the upcoming olive harvest.

They note that Israeli security forces have announced an intent to make sure that Palestinian farmers can harvest "every last olive" and that the security forces have indeed begun protecting the harvest in those villages that appealed to the Association For Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Yesh Gvul for help. They are "cautiously optimistic" that things on the ground will be worked out.

However,

The IDF has asked for another two weeks to prepare a plan as to how they will protect the Palestinian access to their lands all year. ... [T]he position of the security forces is that they lack the resources to protect this basic right all year. In the last few weeks we have been in village after village in which many trees had withered fruit or no fruit at all because farmers couldn't take care of their trees during the rest of the year.

What good does it do to protect the harvest if there is nothing harvestable to protect? The declared intent of the IDF to protect the harvest is good and to be applauded - but its admitted inability to protect Palestinian growers just trying to tend their fields and groves to feed their families from threats, harassment, and attack by settlers and other elements of the fundamentalist Israeli right makes those good intentions far less meaningful than they might otherwise be.

And here's a thought: What would the reaction here be if the Palestinian Authority declared it had no intention of negotiating with Israel because of the failure of the security forces to "control terrorist attacks" against Palestinian growers?