Settlers return olive trees stolen from Palestinian-owned grove

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 22:09 26/06/2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/875413.html

Settlers from the West Bank illegal outpost of Adi-ad on Tuesday returned
hundreds of olive trees they had uprooted from a Palestinian-owned grove
last week.

The Civil Administration ordered the settlers to give back some 300 trees
after an inquiry verified the claims of a Palestinian farmer that they had
been stolen from his land.

During the inquiry it was revealed settlers replanted some of the trees
within their outpost and on the sides of the access road leading to it.

As a result of the Civil Administration order, settlers returned the trees
to their owner and set up an irrigation system.

A Civil Administration official said "we have treated this case with
precision and are making sure the Palestinian land owner will have access to
[the trees] and are in constant contact with him. We continue to follow the
incident and the implementation of our orders."