Israeli Police Plan Deportation of 14 Foreign Activists After West Bank Olive Harvest Arrests

Israeli police intend to deport 14 foreign nationals following their arrest in the central West Bank on Sunday. The detainees were taken into custody alongside three Palestinians during an olive harvest in the village of Kafr Ni’ma, near Ramallah. Authorities charged the group with disturbing public order. During interrogations, officers stated that the foreigners planned to create anti-Israel media content. Police also noted that some of the detainees support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The investigation into the three Palestinian detainees is continuing.

The detention of the 17 individuals occurred on Friday. The Palestinian activist group Faz3a reported that the group included 12 foreign volunteers, two foreign journalists, two local landowners, and one Faz3a activist. The group alleged that settlers attacked the volunteers and held them until soldiers and police arrived to make the arrests. Settler activists published video footage showing some detainees boarding a bus owned by the Mateh Binyamin Development Company. The municipal authority for the Mateh Binyamin settler area stated it sent the bus to transport the group to the police station in Modiin Illit. The authority described the event as a planned provocation near the settlement of Sde Efraim.

This incident follows a pattern of arrests during the current olive harvest season. On November 1, police deported 13 foreign nationals who allegedly violated a closed military zone order near the village of Lubban al-Gharbiya. These individuals had been assisting Palestinians with the harvest. Alon Sapir, the lawyer for that group, told The Times of Israel that the group consisted of 15 people. He stated that soldiers presented the group with a closed military zone order issued for that specific area on the same day. Earlier, on October 21, Israeli forces detained more than 70 foreign and Israeli activists. This larger group included Brad Lander, a US congressional candidate who has since been elected to Congress.

Israel has restricted the entry of foreign BDS activists for several years. A law passed in 2017 allows authorities to deny entry to foreign nationals who publicly call for a boycott of Israel or work for organizations that advocate such measures. The law covers boycotts targeting West Bank settlements. It does not apply to Israeli citizens or permanent residents. The upcoming deportation of the 14 foreigners aligns with this legal framework. The next step in the process involves the formal removal of the detainees from the country. Police have not announced a specific date for the deportations. The three Palestinian detainees remain in the custody of the police while the investigation continues.