"Siege of the Fields" .. Katz Decides to Deport Foreign Activists Solidarity with Olive Pickers

Israeli Occupation Minister Israel Katz decided to issue deportation orders against foreign activists pro-Palestinian who intend to help farmers during the olive harvest season, in response to a request from the head of the "Yesha" settlement council Israel Gantz, who described the activists as coming to create "provocations and confrontations."

Israeli Occupation Minister Israel Katz decided to take measures to issue deportation orders against foreign pro-Palestinian activists who intend to help Palestinian farmers during the current olive harvest season. The decision came in response to a request from the head of the "Yesha" settlement council Israel Gantz, who described the activists as coming to olive picking areas to create "provocations and confrontations." Gantz said: "We will not allow extremist activists, whether Israeli or foreign, to reach the area to stir up provocations and confrontations. We will not allow the olive harvest season to be turned into a tool for creating deliberate friction on the ground." These measures come at a time when Israeli human rights organizations have recorded a significant increase in settler attacks on Palestinian farmers during olive harvest seasons in recent years. The "Yesh Din" organization recorded 109 attacks committed by settlers and soldiers of the occupation army against Palestinians in 75 towns and villages in the West Bank, related to the current olive harvest season. During the 2025 olive harvest season, the occupation army declared entire Palestinian areas closed military zones on several occasions, to prevent activists from reaching and helping farmers. The Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz" revealed that the occupation army threatened to declare Palestinian olive fields in the occupied West Bank closed military zones, if their owners used Israeli or foreign supporters to accompany them during the olive harvest season. In one case in the town of Beita south of Nablus, occupation soldiers stopped the olive harvest, even though the lands are in Area "B." According to the newspaper, occupation forces declared a number of agricultural areas closed military zones, while in some cases they threatened to cancel olive harvest operations in entire areas, despite army instructions stating that the accompaniment of supporters for Palestinians does not in itself justify preventing them from accessing their lands or closing the area.