Some 90 volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights were detained by the IDF in the West Bank on Wednesday, including congressional nominee Brad Lander (D-NY) and former deputy attorney-general Yehoshua Schoffman, sources told The Jerusalem Post.
Police took the foreign volunteers to the Etzion Regional Brigade headquarters for questioning, a source at the scene told the Post. Sources added that no one was harmed in the incident.
Authorities are inclined to deport the foreign activists, the source added. Lander was specifically released with a warning, Israel Police confirmed.
Rabbis for Human Rights said the volunteers worked in the village of Nehalim near Bethlehem, accompanying Palestinian farmers to groves during the olive harvest. According to the left-leaning activist group, Palestinian farmers in the area had been unable to access the groves for three years. Authorities say that olive harvesting in the area is prohibited without coordination with security services.
In a statement hours after the incident, the IDF said that the activists did not submit a request to harvest in advance of the olive season.
"Due to the security risk posed by conducting an uncoordinated harvest near an Israeli community, IDF soldiers, Border Police forces in Judea and Samaria, and officers from the Judea and Samaria District Police arrived at the scene and detained those present," the IDF said.
"The landowner was informed that he must coordinate the olive harvest on his plot of land and was provided with the relevant contact information to arrange a harvest at a later date. In areas designated for coordinated harvesting, only harvesters will be permitted to enter, solely for the purpose of harvesting."
Rabbis for Human Rights activists detained in West Bank
Lander wrote that he was "simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank."
"The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know," he added.
Schoffman posted a message to X/Twitter as he was being detained, and noted that there was no confrontation with the soldiers or with any settler extremists in the area.
Leadership from Rabbis for Human Rights said that their work in the West Bank was peaceful, and that it was the organization's policy to comply with IDF orders.
"We came to accompany farmers to land they had been unable to access for three years, and after two hours of peaceful olive harvesting, large numbers of troops arrived and closed off the area. No one could have known about this order in advance. Instead of protecting people working their land, the army is keeping them away from it and detaining those who came to accompany them for identification,” acting executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights Anton Goodman said.
The IDF's Arabic Spokesperson's unit said in response that it will "not allow inciting elements to exploit civil activity to provoke violence or create disturbances. The olive harvest season is an agricultural activity; it must not be transformed into a period of violence and conflict."
Left-wing Jewish organizations decry detainment of activists assisting Palestinian farmers
In response to reports that Israeli authorities are inclined to deport the foreign activists, Democrats MK and Rabbi Gilad Kariv called for Jewish organizations in Israel and the Diaspora to intervene.
"According to the information we have, the police and military are seeking to deport the dozens of Jewish volunteers from North America who came today to assist with the olive harvest in Gush Etzion. Among this group are prominent and influential rabbis, community leaders, and public figures," he wrote in a post on X/Twitter.
"They did not break any laws or violate any lawful orders, nor did they confront anyone. Their deportation, if carried out, would cause enormous damage to Israel's standing among Jewish and general public opinion in the US.
"I call on the leaders of the Jewish Agency, the heads of Jewish organizations in the US, and AIPAC leadership to intervene in this madness. I have no expectations of Ben-Gvir, Katz, or Netanyahu, but it is time for us to stand up against the terrible damage they are causing to the Jewish world and Israel's standing internationally."
T'ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs was among those detained. In a statement, she criticized the IDF, stating that "rather than protecting Palestinian farmers and ensuring their right to work their own land, the Israeli military forcibly removed those who came to provide a protective presence."
"This is an outrageous abuse of power, and part of a systematic, state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at driving Palestinians from their land," she added.
“The Israeli government is actively advancing the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank, using its military to deny Palestinians access to their land and intimidate those who stand alongside them. As rabbis, we have a moral obligation to confront these injustices, especially when they are carried out in our name.
In a joint statement, the Reform Movement in Israel and the Council of Reform Rabbis in Israel called the incident appalling.
"It is inconceivable that, instead of arresting and prosecuting the Jewish extremists who engage in theft and violence, security forces are arresting rabbi activists who are acting in accordance with Jewish values of love for humanity and the pursuit of justice," said Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism Anna Kislanski.
"This is a moral loss of control that tarnishes not only the State of Israel but also its relationship with Diaspora Jewry. We call for the immediate release of all those detained and for decisive action against those Jewish extremists who are, in fact, breaking the law daily.”
In a video posted before his detainment, Lander said that Palestinians have a right to harvest peacefully on their lands, and that it is a commandment in Judaism to assist those in need.
Why were left-wing activists helping harvest olives?
On Tuesday, Lander, the former New York City comptroller, posted a video announcing that he was volunteering in the West Bank with the organization.
"Our goals for the trip are to help protect the olive harvest - and to shed a light on the reality of the occupation. To ensure that international solidarity goes beyond the harvest, to become a sustained commitment to protecting Palestinian communities from settler violence, forced displacement, and the ongoing threats to their right to remain on their land," he wrote.
"Thankfully, our corner of today's harvest was peaceful and successful. But violence, unfortunately, is never far away."