(RNS) — Two American Jewish women who had volunteered to harvest olives in a Palestinian village in the West Bank were deported from Israel and sent back to the United States on Friday (Oct. 31) in what human rights groups say is an escalation of hostilities toward anyone who aids or advocates for Palestinians.
The Americans, a physician in her 50s and an 18-year-old high school graduate, were volunteering as part of a four-month program run by a Jewish group, Achvat Amim, or Solidarity of Nations. Last week, the group partnered with Rabbis for Human Rights in their campaign to help Palestinians under attack from Israeli settlers.
The Jewish women’s deportations comes one week after 32 international volunteers — from the U.S. and Europe — were also deported from the same spot in the town of Burin, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, about 45 miles north of Jerusalem.
Israeli settlers have targeted the olive harvest in recent years, unleashing waves of violence and destruction. In Burin and other places across the West Bank, settlers have cut, bulldozed, uprooted and set olive trees on fire. The reasons have everything to do with the economic importance of olives.
The UN estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest for their livelihoods.
The two women, whose names have not been released, are U.S. citizens with deep ties to Israel. They have family living there and have traveled there before.
“The concept of easily deporting Jews for showing up to a workday to stand with Palestinians is a complete antithesis of what the state of Israel claims to be as a refuge for Jews and a place that claims to respect human rights,” said Becca Strober, Achvat Amim’s education director. “It clearly shows the opposite.”
Deportations of U.S. Jews from Israel have been rare in the past but are growing. Since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the government has ramped up deportations of foreigners involved in advocacy for Palestinians in the West Bank. This is the first time that either Achvat Amim or Rabbis for Human Rights has had any of its volunteers deported.
The two women plan to appeal their deportation, with legal help from both Rabbis for Human Rights and Achvat Amim, which have jointly hired a civil rights lawyer to assist them.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Police wrote in an email that the women had violated the conditions of their tourist visas. It did not specify what the conditions of their visas or the violations were.
“Following repeated incidents of this nature, the Judea and Samaria District Police is acting firmly and in accordance with the policy of the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and the directives of Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy, to locate and stop foreign elements engaged in intentional provocations that generate clashes and misrepresent events in the area, undermining public safety,” the police spokesperson said.
Avi Dabush, CEO of the 37-year-old Israeli social justice organization Rabbis for Human Rights, said there were no clashes or provocations with the authorities, and the group did not resist arrest.
FILE – Avi Dabush speaks to media during a Rabbis For Human Rights demonstration in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem. (Photo courtesy Rabbis for Human Rights)
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Dabush said that on Oct. 29, the group of 11 volunteers had taken a minibus to the West Bank village of Burin. As they approached a checkpoint, the group was told that the military had declared the spot a closed military zone, but the group took an alternate route to the groves. When they arrived, soldiers detained the group and took them to the police station in the town of Ariel.
There, the Israelis were questioned and released with a promise not to return for 15 days. The two Americans were told they would be deported.
“We are, of course, nonviolent, but we are trying to obey the law,” Dabush said. “It’s really frustrating because the army and the police are doing nothing to stop the violent settlers, but on Wednesday, they spend so many hours, soldiers and police officers to deal with this.”
Rabbis for Human Rights is in the midst of a 14-day campaign to help these farmers harvest their olives.
Several American rabbis have traveled to Israel to aid the campaign, including 10 rabbis from T’ruah, the U.S. human rights group. Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said she and nine other American rabbis picked olives at a different location in the West Bank without incident on Sunday.
The deportation of the two Americans set a worrying precedent.
“I’m very concerned about the Israeli government’s crackdown on people who are supporting Palestinians and on the total impunity for settlers who are carrying out violent attacks,” said Jacobs. “And I’m very concerned for what this means for Israel’s relationship with Jews across the world, in the US and beyond, if the place that is supposed to be the Jewish homeland is deciding that they’re going to deport some Jews based on their political opinion and activities.”
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