The Knesset National Security Council convened on Sunday for a special meeting titled: "Police preparation to prevent harm to residents during the olive harvest season."
During the meeting, MK Limor Son-Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit) warned that the harvest season in Judea and Samaria has long since become an orchestrated event of provocations and violence. According to the MK, "The olive harvest is used as a cover for provocations, violent protests, and attack attempts, with Jewish lives being pushed aside for the comfort of the enemy. The harvest can not become a path for terrorists to circumvent security by disguising themselves as farmers. We must protect Israeli citizens, and not abandon them in the face of armed rioters."
Son-Har Melech also presented the committee with the activities of the "Committee to Resist Settlements," an official Palestinian Authority body led by released terrorist Muayad Shaban. She alerted that Shaban held a meeting last week to officially prepare for the harvest season and called to turn it into "a confrontation arena and a tool for Palestinian unity."
Lt. Col. Hakim Halil, chief of the Civil Administration Operations Wing, said during the meeting that the possibility of prohibiting entry to certain areas for security reasons is being considered. Intelligence is monitoring the issue and will instruct accordingly.
Deputy Commander Abraham Mivorach, Operations Officer of the Judea and Samaria District Police, stated that the district commander ordered close monitoring of Palestinian Arab rioters ahead of the upcoming olive harvest season, as well as the establishment of a dedicated task headquarters. "In the coming period, coordination between the district police, Border Police, and IDF forces will be intensified, including distribution of field maps, deployment of forces at friction points, and planning preventive operations ahead of the October 15 period," he said.
Activist Elisha Yered warned that "the rioters of the Committee to Resist Settlements simply move between sectors, posing as innocent farmers and deceiving security forces. The dozens of assaults they have carried out under the cover of the harvest thus far should have put them in prison for many years, but the defense establishment has done nothing. There is no reason why, by the time the harvest begins in about two weeks, these terrorists should not already be behind bars."