On 7 October 2020, at around 9:00 A.M., a farmer from ‘Ein Yabrud noticed some five settlers harvesting olive trees on private land belonging to three farmers from the village. It later transpired that the settlers had started picking the olives two days earlier and altogether stole the fruit off 70 trees, which are 100 years old.
As the olives could have produced some 900 liters of oil, the theft cost the owner tens of thousands of shekels. The settlers also vandalized the trees, which could damage their yield next season. One of the farmers went to the police station in Beit El to file a complaint, but the officers refused to register it and advised him to return to his land to harvest the remaining fruit.
The groves from which the olives were stolen lie west of ‘Ein Yabrud. The settlement of Beit El was established in 1977 west of them.