Israel Seeks to Deport 14 Foreign Activists Following West Bank Olive Harvest Detentions
Police arrested the group in Kafr Ni'ma on suspicion of disturbing public order and preparing media campaigns against Israel.
By Martin Reynolds ·
Israeli police announced on Sunday that they are moving to deport 14 foreign nationals described as anti-Israel activists. The detainees were arrested alongside three Palestinians in the central West Bank on suspicion of disturbing public order. Police stated that interrogations revealed the group intended to produce anti-Israel media campaigns. Authorities also noted that some of the foreigners support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The investigation into the three Palestinian detainees remains ongoing.
The Palestinian activist group Faz3a reported that Israeli forces detained 17 individuals on Friday during an olive harvest in Kafr Ni'ma, a village in the Ramallah area. The group said the detainees included 12 foreign volunteers, two foreign journalists, two Palestinian landowners, and one Faz3a activist. Faz3a claimed that settlers attacked the harvesters and held them until soldiers and police arrived to make the arrests.
Footage released by settler activists showed detainees boarding a bus operated by the Mateh Binyamin Development Company. The group identified Mateh Binyamin as the Hebrew name for the local settler municipal authority. The activists said the municipal authority sent the bus to transport the detainees to a police station in Modiin Illit. They described the event as a planned harvest provocation near the settlement of Sde Efraim.
Israel has restricted the entry of foreign activists associated with the BDS movement for several years. A 2017 law allows authorities to deny entry to foreign nationals who publicly call for a boycott of Israel or work for organizations that advocate such boycotts. The law excludes Israeli citizens and permanent residents from its provisions.
The arrests occurred during a series of similar incidents involving foreign volunteers this harvest season. On November 1, police deported 13 foreign nationals after they allegedly violated a closed military zone order near the village of Lubban al-Gharbiya. Their lawyer, Alon Sapir, told The Times of Israel that the group consisted of 15 foreign nationals assisting with the harvest. Sapir said soldiers presented the group with a closed military zone order that day.
Earlier in the season, Israeli forces detained more than 70 foreign and Israeli activists on October 21. The group had joined Palestinians harvesting olives in the West Bank. US congressional candidate Brad Lander was among those detained. He has since been elected to Congress.
