They were detained while harvesting alongside Palestinians in the West Bank. The mayor of Al Lubban Al Gharbi was also arrested.

On Friday, the Palestinian NGO International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said that 14 foreign activists face deportation from Israel after being arrested for harvesting olives alongside Palestinians in Al Lubban Al Gharbi, northwest of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

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“The activists were detained inside a house in the town, far from the olive groves, and were subsequently transferred to the Israeli police station at the Ni’ilin checkpoint. They were questioned on suspicion of violating an order issued by a military commander by allegedly entering a closed military zone,” said ISM, an organization that promotes the use of nonviolent resistance in opposition to the Israeli occupation.

The activists, who come from Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Ireland and Sweden, are scheduled to appear at a hearing that could result in the revocation of their visas and their deportation.

During the Israeli operation against the activists, who “were not presented with any order declaring the area a military zone”, the mayor of Al Lubban Al Gharbi was also arrested. He was brutally beaten, threatened, and his carpentry workshop was damaged. He was also warned not to bring activists back to the area.

Israeli Forces Arrest Foreign Activist Helping Palestinians Harvest Olives in Kafr Malik
Israeli forces arrested a foreign activist in the village of Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, while he was helping Palestinian farmers harvest their olive crops pic.twitter.com/paEBO6Y3xR

— Gaza Press (@GazaPressNews) October 30, 2026

Al Lubban Al Gharbi is located in an area of the West Bank where brutal violence by Israeli settlers, settlement expansion, land confiscation and restrictions on freedom of movement have progressively reduced Palestinians’ access to their agricultural land.

During the 2025 olive harvest, the International Solidarity Movement had already documented numerous incidents involving Israeli settlers and soldiers using live ammunition and tear gas in the area.

Settler violence against Palestinians has surged in the West Bank over the past four years under the far-right government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The olive harvest season has become a particularly brutal period not only for farmers but also for foreign journalists and even diplomats, who were likewise assaulted weeks ago by groups of Jewish extremists amid the Israeli army’s inaction.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE