Israel Orders Deportation of 12 Foreign Activists Detained During West Bank Olive Harvest

RAMALLAH: Israeli authorities have ordered the deportation of 12 international activists detained while helping Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA on Friday.

The activists were among 17 people detained earlier on Friday in Kafr Ni’ma village, west of Ramallah, alongside two foreign journalists and three Palestinians, following an attack by Israeli settlers, the agency reported.

The Faza’a solidarity campaign said a lawyer representing the detainees had been informed that the 12 activists, including five Germans, four Italians, two Canadians and one American, would be deported on Saturday morning.

According to local sources cited by WAFA, settlers assaulted Palestinian farmers, activists and journalists in the village as they participated in the olive harvest. Israeli soldiers subsequently detained members of the group and transferred them to a nearby military outpost.

The three detained Palestinians included Faza’a’s Ramallah coordinator and two farmers, whom Israeli soldiers allegedly assaulted before taking them into custody, the campaign said.

Faza’a condemned the detentions and planned deportations, describing them as attempts to silence witnesses to settler violence, prevent the documentation of attacks against Palestinians and obstruct efforts to help farmers access their land.

The campaign said foreign volunteers supporting Palestinian farmers had repeatedly faced detention and deportation.

The incident comes amid increasing reports of settler attacks during the West Bank olive harvest season.

The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission documented 20 attacks on farmers and their land across six West Bank governorates on Friday, including assaults, detentions, crop theft and restrictions on access to olive groves, WAFA reported.

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