Jewish rabbi allows settlers to steal Palestinians’ crops
Aljazeera

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The chief rabbi of the Jewish Yitzhar settlement, located in the West Bank, will issue an edict that allows settlers to steal the agricultural crops of Palestinian farms in nearby villages.

Israeli sources said that the rabbi, regarded as the spiritual leader of the settlement, said that other rabbis have different opinions as to whether it is legal for the settlers to rob the Palestinian farmer’s crops or not.

However, he said that he will issue an edict allowing such acts after considering each case separately.

Jewish settlers in the Yiitzhar settlement have repeatedly attacked Palestinians in nearby villages and towns.

Last month, they poisoned and damaged the main water spring for the Madama village.

An Oxfam team tried to repair the damage but they said that they needed protection because armed Israeli settlers opened fire on workers repairing the same spring in two separate occasions during 2002.

Israel’s Haaretz daily said that extremist settlers have attacked the water system for the village several times, destroying the water pipes and throwing building waste into the water holes.

The council head of the village, Ayed Kamal, said that the Palestinian Authority stopped sending complaints to the Israeli army because it fails to act on Palestinians' complaints against settlers.

An Oxfam official said that the organization will invest its funds in new projects, rather than in repairing repeated sabotage carried out by Israeli settlers.