Shin Bet gives IDF, police `harvest incident' suspects

[Scurrilous]

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"Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin said yesterday that his agency has given the army and police identifying details of "hilltop youth" from the West Bank settlements of Yitzhar and Itamar who are suspected of having cut down olive trees belonging to Palestinians."

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"Diskin harshly criticized other law-enforcement agencies - a barb aimed at the Israel Defense Forces and the police - for "rolling their eyes heavenward" and not doing anything about attacks on the olive groves because the perpetrators were hilltop youth.

Diskin said Palestinians' olive trees are uprooted every year during the harvest season.

He said the Shin Bet wanted to place the hilltop youth suspected of causing the damage under administrative detention, but was prevented from doing so.

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz-Yahad), who raised the olive-tree issue at the committee meeting, accused the security establishment and Shin Bet of totally failing to catch "the criminals who uproot trees." He called on Diskin to ambush the suspects, and, if necessary, fire at their legs."


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