Israel deports 32 foreign activists who helped West Bank Palestinians harvest olives

( Times of Israel )

Justice Minister Yariv Levin said Wednesday he had ordered the deportation of 32 foreign activists who had helped Palestinians harvest olives in the West Bank, on the grounds they violated a military order.

Levin said the deportation order came after a complaint filed by Samaria Regional Council chief Yossi Dagan, who said the activists were “anarchists who carried out provocations in the Samaria area,” using the biblical term for the northern West Bank.

Rudy Schulkind, a 30-year-old British national among the deported, told AFP he had come to the West Bank to support Palestinian farmers.

This year’s olive season has been particularly violent, with several acts of vandalism and attacks from Israeli settlers.

Foreign activists often provide a presence meant to deter these incidents in rural West Bank areas.

Schulkind said he was held 72 hours by Israeli forces before being deported on October 19.

“We were arrested after they declared the area we were harvesting in as a military zone,” he said, alleging that this was a common Israeli tactic against Palestinians.

He added that all 32 international volunteers were arrested in an olive grove near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Schulkind said that he and the other volunteers “were never brought before a judge,” during their detention.

Levin said the deportation was co-signed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and accused the activists of violating “a military commander’s order” and of belonging to the UAWC (Union of Agricultural Work Committees).

UAWC, a Palestinian non-profit organization that focuses on agricultural development, was labelled by Israel as a terrorist organization in 2021 along with five other NGOs, in a ruling condemned by the UN.

Schulkind did not disclose which organization he came with, but Fuad Abu Seif, researcher at UAWC and the organization’s former director, told AFP the volunteers came under a so-called “National Campaign” organized by many Palestinian NGOs and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority’s ministry of agriculture.

Abu Seif said the UAWC is a member of that campaign, but not an organizer.

For its part, the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry condemned the arrests.