Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah says Israeli settlers destroyed more than 4,000 olive trees in the occupied West Bank during 2012.Addressing a festival celebrating the olive picking season on Palestinian lands on Saturday, Hamdallah said that his government plans to set up a committee to compensate the Palestinian farmers who suffered property damage by the settlers.
He also said that the Palestinian Authority is prepared to plant 750,000 olive trees in the West Bank.
Earlier this month, Israeli settlers destroyed nearly 130 olive trees in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers, mostly armed, regularly attack Palestinian villages and farms and set fire to their mosques, olive groves and other properties in the West Bank under the so-called price tag policy. However, the Tel Aviv regime rarely detains the assailants.
The extremists say the price tag attacks are carried out against any Israeli policy to reduce the presence of settlers and settlements on the occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
By Press TV
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
