The National High Commission for the Olive Campaign 2025 express their strongest condemnation of the detention and ongoing deportation of 32 international volunteers by Israeli occupation authorities while they were accompanying Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest.
The volunteers were engaged in peaceful, community-requested protective presence: accompanying families to their olive groves, assisting with harvesting, and documenting Israeli settler attacks. These activities serve a crucial role in reducing risk and ensuring visibility for Palestinian farmers and rural communities facing escalating Israeli settler violence and movement restrictions.
According to coordinating organizations and legal counsel, five volunteers were deported on Friday, while the remaining detainees are expected to be deported on Sunday and Monday. The group includes nationals from the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the United States. This crackdown is part of a broader pattern in which the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and settlers work in tandem to target rural Palestinian communities, obstruct harvest access, and suppress international witnessing, particularly in Area C, where the risk of land confiscation and forced displacement is most acute. Detainees have reported that they were targeted specifically for their role in documenting and deterring attacks.
The 2025 olive harvest has begun amid a sharp escalation in settler attacks and access restrictions, repeatedly documented by UN agencies and independent monitors. The right to harvest and access land is central to Palestinians’ livelihoods, culture, and food sovereignty. Israeli disruption of the harvest through violence, military closures, and arrests has direct economic and humanitarian consequences and forms part of the Israeli systematic strategy of attacking Palestinian livelihoods.
International volunteers play a vital role in providing protective accompaniment and documentation that deters violence and exposes abuses. The Israeli Occupation’s detention and deportation of these international volunteers undermines civilian protection and conceals ongoing violations from international scrutiny. Targeting such accompaniment also violates international humanitarian and human rights law, including the rights to freedom of association and expression and the duty to protect civilians under occupation.
Our Demands:
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The immediate release of all detained volunteers and cessation of deportation proceedings related to nonviolent protective presence activities.
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Guaranteed safe and timely access for Palestinian farmers to their lands throughout the harvest, including in areas near settlements and behind barriers, with effective measures to prevent settler violence.
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Independent investigations into all attacks on farmers and volunteers, and accountability for perpetrators of settler violence and officials who enable or fail to prevent it.
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Unhindered access for international observers, journalists, and human rights
defenders to support and document conditions during the harvest.
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Concrete actions by third states to monitor, report, and sanction those responsible for systematic violations, consistent with their legal obligations not to aid or recognize unlawful situations.
Despite these detentions and deportations, Palestinian civil society and communities, together with international supporters, will continue the olive harvest season. Farmers are in their fields, and dozens of international companions remain deployed alongside families to help safely pick and bring in the harvest. The campaign will continue to grow in the coming days as planned.
Protect Palestinian farmers. End settler violence. Defend international solidarity.
Issued by The National High Commission for the Olive Campaign 2025
The National High Commission for the Olive Tree Campaign 2025 include (MoA, CWRC, Agricultural Sector/ PNGO, Palestinian NGOs)
