Rabbis for Human Rights defend West Bank olive harvest

Source: RHR

Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), founded in 1988, is dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Comprising rabbis and rabbinical students from diverse Jewish traditions-including Reform, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reconstructionist-RHR is driven by the profound Jewish values of justice, dignity, and equality.

RHR writes: This week we opened our campaign to support the Palestinian harvest season in the village of Husan. The staff of Rabbi Voice for Human Rights, Sabeel, and 25 additional volunteers came to assist with the harvest and provide protection.

Already on our first day we faced a closed military order from the army: these orders are routinely used in order to prevent farmers from reaching their lands. Fortunately, we had already harvested for a few hours, and with the volunteers we brought to the field, we managed to successfully collect the olives from an entire grove.

On the second day of the olive harvest season, over 40 volunteers joined us in a partnership day harvest with Standing Together, in the fields of Deyr Ammar. These groves have been inaccessible since a new settler outpost was established, which displaced several Bedouin families.

Within minutes of arriving, soldiers ordered us to leave, claiming it was forbidden to be there or to film. After about 15 minutes, a military order arrived. As we began packing up, around ten settlers appeared, shouting and throwing stones. Several Palestinians were attacked, and at least one was hospitalized.

Today we were harvesting in the lands of Silwad, which have become unreachable for the Palestinian farmers due to extreme settler violence. 40 volunteers and staff managed to continue harvesting while being attacked and harassed by the settlers. Fortunately, only one staff member was lightly injured.

This is the daily reality during the olive harvest season; settler terror and military restrictions, resulting in an impossible situation for Palestinian olive farmers.

Volunteering with us is an opportunity to express true solidarity and physically defend the basic right of families to access their land.

To read more about Rabbis for Human Rights and to support their work see: www.rhr.org.il/eng and https://causematch.com/defendtheharvest

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