Naar de olijfgaarden gaan voelt tegenwoordig alsof je naar een oorlog gaat,
said Sousan Saleh as she described the daily reality for her family in the West Bank village of Burin.
Jewish-Dutch rabbi-in-training Lievnath Faber joined Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank to assist with the annual olive harvest, nos.nl reported. Faber arrived on October 27 with American-Jewish organizations Rabbis for Ceasefire and Center for Jewish Nonviolence. She works alongside 13 other rabbis and rabbinical students from the United States and Canada to support families near Nablus.
Attacks by settlers during the harvest season increase every year, disrupting an event that traditionally serves as both a primary income source and a festive family gathering. Saleh said settlers frequently enter the village itself to cause destruction and start fires.
Faber noted that the presence of international volunteers often fails to deter incoming attacks. Het maakt voor hen helemaal niet uit of je Joods bent of niet, wat je achtergrond is of waar je vandaan komt,
Saleh said, explaining that settlers target everyone present in the groves regardless of background.
A group of European diplomats who visited the West Bank in solidarity with Palestinian farmers last month also faced attacks, nos.nl reported.
Faber observed that the Israeli military plays a role in the violence, describing daily accounts of soldiers entering homes or using pepperspray to pull farmers off tractors before interrogating them. Human rights organizations regularly document that the military does not intervene during settler attacks, and in some cases soldiers even support or facilitate the violence.
Upon arriving in Burin, Faber had to shelter inside a home after the military placed the village under a lockdown. Ghassan Najjar, co-founder of the local agricultural cooperative, was arrested that same day. Amnesty International reported that authorities detained Najjar for his peaceful activism protecting the Burin olive harvest, while the Israeli military has not issued a public statement regarding the arrest.
Lievnath Faber was on the West Bank with American-Jewish organizations Rabbis for Ceasefire and Center for Jewish Nonviolence, together with 13 other rabbis and rabbinical students from the United States and Canada.
The local agricultural cooperative in Burin coordinates the effort, with co-founder Ghassan Najjar managing contact between international volunteers and Palestinian farmers before his arrest.
The participants aimed to support Palestinian families during the dangerous olive harvest season and to witness the regional conditions firsthand before returning to share those accounts in the Netherlands.