The incident on Wednesday in which the IDF detained a US congressional nominee and around 90 foreign volunteers, including senior members of Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), as they attempted to assist Palestinians in harvesting olives in the West Bank, was a highly complex situation, IDF sources told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Given extensive recent reports of Jewish extremists harassing Palestinians and preventing them from completing their harvests, the activists sought to assist in the olive harvest.
Claims from both sides involved were subjected to careful examination. One issue that remains unclear is the status of communications between the sides before the incident.
RHR initially said that they had sent letters requesting to coordinate their visit with the IDF Chief’s office and with the IDF Central Commander, to the IDF head of COGAT, to the Samaria Brigade Commander, and to the Etzion Brigade Commander, but had received no response.
Letter requesting to coordinate visit seen by 'Post'
The IDF and the Foreign Ministry initially said that RHR had failed to coordinate its visit to the West Bank area and that the area was a prohibited zone.
However, on Thursday evening, the Post received a copy of the letter sent by Rabbis for Human Rights to the IDF. The letter is undated, but the organization said that it was sent to the IDF on August 25, nearly two months in advance of the visit.
At press time, the military had not clarified whether or not it had received the letter.
Earlier on Thursday, IDF sources had expressed that they were unaware of such a letter.
Further, they indicated that the IDF receives many letters and sometimes may not see or respond to all of them on time.
If the RHR had indeed sent such a letter to the IDF, and the military simply had not read it in time due to being overwhelmed with paperwork, this would neutralize one of the main justifications for its detention of the activists seeking to assist the Palestinian olive harvesters.
Yet there is another complex series of arguments regarding the incident.
RHR said that the village they visited was in a Palestinian area and, as such, did not require coordination with the IDF.
Faced with this claim, the IDF sources explained to the Post that 90% of the area where the olives were harvested was open and did not require coordination with the military, but 10% did require such coordination.
Regarding the visit, IDF sources argued that a large part of the problem – which had prevented a slower and more careful assessment of the situation – was the very large number of foreign visitors and the fact that they had come within some 50 meters of a Jewish village known to have provocative and aggressive members.
In other words, when the IDF arrived in the area, some two hours after the olive harvesting had begun, they were seriously concerned that even if the RHR group was peaceful, the extremists from the nearby Jewish village would attack them, given the size of their group.
Of course, RHR and the Palestinian harvesters could respond that it was the IDF’s job to protect them and allow them to do their harvesting; not to forcefully evacuate them – let alone detain them – to avoid provoking extremists into breaking the law.
IDF sources did not have a satisfactory answer to that question, saying that the soldiers on the ground had not known that US Congressional candidate Brad Lander (D-NY) was present or understood much about the group when they arrived.
Rather, IDF sources said that since a series of provocative incidents involving Palestinians, Jews, and foreign visitors have taken place and since there was no registered coordination, the military assumed that the visitors were provocateurs who had to be detained and removed from their proximity to potential Jewish extremists, in the interests of avoiding a potentially large-scale and deadly incident – in light of recent occurrences.
Later, when the IDF officials realized who Lander was, they immediately released him. Further, they said, they released almost all the detainees within a matter of hours.
While the military’s narrative of the incident was not particularly favorable, IDF sources said that the broader olive harvesting situation was very favorable.
They said that a huge area of Palestinian West Bank olive harvesting had been properly coordinated with the IDF in the last week and a half.
The IDF said that over 100 olive harvest trips had been coordinated with the IDF without any problems. The military added that 22,500 tons of olives were harvested, and 5,600 tons of olive oil were packaged, worth around NIS 225 million.
The Foreign Ministry said that one quarter of the entire area had already been harvested.
However, the letter from RHR to the IDF noted data indicating that there had been a 63% increase in Jewish crimes against Palestinians during the first half of the year. The military had not allowed harvesting in the specific area in question.
Lander was specifically released with a warning, he recalled in a statement.
“I’ve been released from IDF custody with a ‘warning,’ apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congress member yet, just a nominee),” he wrote. “But several dozen rabbis and participants harvesting olives with me are still in detention. For harvesting olives. They should all be released immediately,” he said, adding that “Palestinians face far worse consequences every day.”
Rabbis for Human Rights activists detained in West Bank
RHR said that the volunteers had worked in the village of Nahalin near Bethlehem, accompanying Palestinian farmers to groves during the olive harvest.
RHR leadership said that their work in the West Bank was peaceful, and that it was the organization’s policy to comply with IDF orders.
“We came to accompany farmers to land they had been unable to access for three years, and after two hours of peaceful olive harvesting, large numbers of troops arrived and closed off the area. No one could have known about this order in advance.
“Instead of protecting people working their land, the army is keeping them away from it and detaining those who came to accompany them for identification,” acting HRH Executive Director Anton Goodman said.
“The fact that Israeli and American rabbis are compelled to stand alongside Palestinian farmers to help them harvest their olives and protect them from settler violence is a damning indictment of the Israeli government. The fact that these same rabbis are detained by security forces, rather than the authorities protecting the farmers and taking action against those perpetrating the violence, is nothing short of a disgrace,” Yizhar Hess, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, said.
Meanwhile, the IDF and the Foreign Ministry view the entire incident as planned and designed to be more of a public relations incident than focused on helping with the olive harvest, which they say is generally proceeding well, despite some increased Jewish extremist violence.
Corinne Baum contributed to this report.