Confrontation, Route 443 (filr)
Confrontation, Route 443 (filr)Israel news photo: Flash 90

About 100 residents of the Arab village Beit Ur a-Tachta intermittently blocked traffic Tuesday morning on Route 443, a major highway leading to Jerusalem from Lod and the coastal area.

Large police and IDF forces arrived on the scene of the disturbance, near Bet Horon, and dispersed the Arabs, making one arrest. PLO flags that were planted by the rioters would be removed by Public Works Commission workers, officials said.

The Arabs claim that dozens of their olive trees have been uprooted recently, ahead of the olive harvest.

Arutz Sheva notes that similar Arab claims against Jews who supposedly uproot their trees surface regularly during harvest season. Investigators usually find that the Arabs are the ones who damaged their own trees in order to blame the Jews, in the knowledge that the media loves "anti-settler" stories.

On Monday, a similar plot was exposed when volunteers from the grassroots Samaria Residents' Council documented Arabs and a foreign anarchist cutting down olive trees near Elon Moreh in order to create a provocation.