Bethlehem / PNN /

Between October 3 and 4, Israel deported four solidarity activists, three from the United States and one from Germany.They were supporting the community of Jamma’in at the start of the olive harvest when Israeli police arrested them. The activists were denied legal advice before facing deportation procedures.

On October 2, a group of international solidarity activists was accompanying farmers from Jamma’in to harvest near the village, located in the south of the Nablus area of the West Bank. As the group was trying to reach the olive groves, a group of Israeli settlers, accompanied by an Israeli army jeep approached them. Soldiers checked their passports, allegedly issued a Closed Military Zone order for the area, and ordered Palestinians to leave.

Israeli Police then arrived, detained the four activists, who were by then leaving the area and in the street. The Israeli Police then took the activists to Ariel Police Station, in a nearby settlement. Police arrested the activists under the false claim that they had been told they were in a ‘Closed Military Zone’ and had refused to leave. In reality, the two were only informed of the military order during an interrogation at the settlement police station.

During the questioning, the police initially told the lawyer they were detained but not arrested and would likely soon be released. Then they contradicted themselves and said that the detainees would be transferred directly to an immigration hearing in order to be deported. The activists had an immigration interview without being allowed to consult a lawyer despite the lawyer trying to contact immigration authorities multiple times without success. Families and friends were left in the dark on the condition of the activists for about a day. After the hearing, they were all deported.

Israeli settlers established an outpost in Jamma’in in November 2025. Since then, they have attacked Palestinian residents almost daily, preventing farmers from accessing their land.

Nessa, one of the deported activists and a queer student involved in the student movement for a Free Palestine in the Netherlands, said : “I came to the West Bank in September 2026 to witness and document the violence perpetrated by Israeli agents against Palestinians in their own homes and on their lands, and to stand next to Palestinians who want that presence and show that they are not alone. For the past three years I followed the live-streamed genocide Israel is committing in Gaza through the screen of my phone, as well as the continuous colonial and violent practices of land theft through illegal settlements and destruction of Palestinian homes and livelihoods in the West Bank. I educated myself on the colonial history of so-called 'Israel' and its continuous disregard of human and nonhuman life, human rights, and international law. I was shocked when I learned of the complicity of Western countries, including my own government. My decision to come to Palestine was to follow the call of Palestinians for international solidarity. Let me be very clear: Palestinians do not need to be spoken for, saved, or liberated and I do not aim to do so; they speak for themselves and they will liberate themselves. My intention is solely to stand by their side when and how they request international presence and make whatever small contribution I can to their struggle for freedom and self-determination – even if that is simply to show that they are not alone in face of the brutal attacks they are exposed to by Israeli authorities, and by settlers supported by Israeli authorities.”

Dima, another activist and a clinical assistant in a mental health residential facility who is active in the Black, queer, Palestinian, and immigrant liberation struggles, said: “I am standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine who have been subjected to constant displacement, imprisonment, torture and genocide at the hands of Israel. It is the moral duty of all people everywhere to resist these crimes against humanity. I understand the risks inherent to this work but my conscience would have me do nothing else while this evil continues.”

The South of Nablus area of the West Bank faced repeated settler and military attacks since the beginning of October. This year, the olive harvest began unusually early, ahead of its expected start in mid-October, as settlers have been looting Palestinian olives for weeks.

On October 2 and 3, Israeli settlers, accompanied by military forces, attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in Jamma’in and several nearby villages, including Beita, Awarta, Deir Sharaf and Osarin. Three Palestinians were injured in Jamma’in alone, where settlers were filmed vandalizing olive trees and throwing stones at Palestinian farmers, while dozens of Palestinians were detained. According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, 2.051 attacks were recorded across the West Bank in September 2026: 1.404 attributed to Israeli forces and 647 to West Bank settler groups.

This escalation had already claimed a life. On October 1, 51-year-old Mashhour Yassin was shot and killed by settlers during an attack on homes in the outskirts of Yasuf, east of Salfit. Ha was at his doorstep when settlers approaching from a nearby outpost, established two months earlier, opened fire.

Yesterday, October 3, settlers from the Mevaser Shalom outpost on Jabal Qamas, between the villages of Beita and Osarin, severely beat four Palestinians while they were harvesting their olives. Hussan Asily, from Osarin, was evacuated to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus with severe bleeding, a fractured skull, an intracranial hemorrhage and a broken arm. He is still in critical condition. His brother, Ghassan Adily, suffered a fractured spine and multiple other fractures and wounds, requiring twenty stitches. Their mother sustained a fractured cheekbone and two fractures in her back.

The olive harvest is crucial to the economy in the West Bank, with 80,000-100,000 families dependent on the season for all or part of their livelihoods. Settler and soldier violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has steadily increased in the three years since the genocide in Gaza began. Palestinian authorities report 1,212 martyrs since October 2023. Settler pogroms occur almost daily across the West Bank all throughout the year, but are particularly vicious during the olive harvest. Last year ISM reported several incidents of coordinated attacks between settlers and soldiers, including soldiers firing live ammunition and tear gas at Palestinians and international volunteers on the first day of the harvest in Beita, soldiers protecting settlers while they bludgeoned a Palestinian woman and two international volunteers with clubs in Turmus Ayya, and soldiers and settlers working together to block harvesters in Yatma.

Just days into the 2026 olive harvest season, and Israeli violence has already started. Palestinians continue their urgent call for international solidarity presence in the West Bank during this crucial season, and throughout the year.