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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nChristian leaders in the Holy Land condemned the latest attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians and European diplomats during an annual olive harvest.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Oct. 20 by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the patriarchs and heads of the Churches in Jerusalem said the \u201cwild attack\u201d in Taybeh, one of the last remaining Christian villages in the West Bank, was \u201cnot an isolated incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past weeks, the Palestinian villages of the West Bank have been exposed to a wide-scale terror by settlers<\/a>, which is reaching a peak during this time of the olive harvest, when families go to their lands to collect what they need to live and renew their generations-long bond with their lands,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n The Oct. 17 attack occurred when a convoy of European diplomats from Belgium, Poland and France, as well as Palestinian civilians, were ambushed by masked settlers, the Reuters news agency reported. Among those attacked was Bernard Baudoux, the mayor of the French commune of Aulnoye-Aymeries, who told Reuters he was \u201cviolently attacked\u201d and \u201cthrown to the ground\u201d by the assailants.<\/p>\n The attack occurred just one day after settlers committed a similar attack against Palestinians during the olive harvest Oct. 16, setting fire to olive trees and throwing rocks, leaving several injured, including Heidi Levine, an American photographer for The Washington Post.<\/p>\n According to The Times of Israel, police are looking into a complaint against Rabbi Dov Lior, a hardline religious Zionist who issued an Oct. 16 religious ruling that allowed Jews to harvest olive trees on Palestinian property \u201cin order to show to the public our ownership of the land, and in so doing one fulfills the (religious) commandment of conquering the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n