UK activist arrested and deported by Israel for helping West Bank olive farmers

Rudy Schulkind one of 32 foreign activists detained after entering 'military zone'

Israeli settlers watch as Israeli soldiers block access for Palestinians to an olive grove in the West Bank village of Sa'ir. AP

An activist from the UK said he was detained while helping Palestinians harvest olives in the occupied West Bank and then deported in a "strategic move" by the Israeli government.

Rudy Schulkind, 30, was with 31 foreign volunteers while picking olives in the village of Burin, near Nablus, on October 16 when he was taken into custody. He said he had travelled to Palestine to help with the olive harvest during increased attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian farmers.

Mr Schulkind told The National he was held for 72 hours in "brutal and dehumanising" conditions before being put on a plane and deported.

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"There were bed bugs and an infestation of cockroaches in the prison cell, including cockroaches in one of the meals that we were served," he said. "In some instances, the prison guards were verbally abusive. Some volunteers were denied essential medication for at least three days."

The activists, who came from Spain, the UK, France, Germany, the US, Italy, Greece and Ireland, were arrested after Israeli forces declared the area they were harvesting a military zone. "It's a common tactic of the occupation to limit Palestinians' rights over their land," Mr Schulkind said.

Speaking to The National from the UK, he said some of the activists faced false accusations during interrogations by Israeli immigration officers, including "accusing people of illegally entering the West Bank, claiming to have videos of activists being violent, and alleging refusal to leave a military zone without ever giving us the chance to comply".

Human rights activists have said the military order aimed to prevent foreign activists from helping Palestinians with the olive harvest. Their deportation comes amid an increase in settler violence against Palestinians during this year's harvest season.

Palestinians in the West Bank have faced increased violence from settlers and Israeli forces since the Gaza war began in October 2023, but there has been a spike in attacks on olive farmers this year compared to previous years, according to the UN. These include assaults on harvesters, theft of crops and harvesting equipment and vandalism of olive trees.

A video of a masked settler clubbing and knocking to the ground a 55-year-old Palestinian woman who was harvesting olives sparked outrage after it was shared widely on social media platforms. The incident was filmed by the US journalist and activist Jasper Nathaniel, who said the settler hit the woman again as she lay unconscious. It is one of dozens of attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinian harvesters in the West Bank.

"Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists," the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, said on Tuesday.

He said the "escalating assault on the olive harvest season is one of many, many Israeli aggressions designed to sever connection, to annex the land, to dispossess Palestinians and facilitate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements".

The Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) said Israeli forces and settlers have carried out more than 150 attacks against Palestinian olive pickers since the beginning of the harvest season on October 9, including physical assaults, direct gunfire, arbitrary arrests, movement restrictions, intimidation and harassment.

Muayyad Shaaban, head of the CWRC, described this year's olive harvest season as "one of the most difficult and dangerous in decades", saying there had been a "deliberate escalation in declaring agricultural lands as closed military zones".

"While the olive harvest season has always witnessed tensions and violence and restrictions, the escalation is truly alarming," said Mr Sunghay. He said it was "occurring against the backdrop of an accelerated Israeli land grab", with Israeli government officials "openly declaring the state’s intent to annex the whole of the West Bank and to forcibly transfer Palestinians".

On Wednesday Israeli MPs voted to advance two bills on the annexation of the West Bank. One bill applies Israeli law to the area, a move tantamount to a land grab of areas Palestinians want for a state.

The vote was the first of four needed to pass the law, and it coincided with a visit by the US vice president JD Vance to Israel to shore up the Gaza ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump. Mr Trump has previously said he would not back the annexation of the West Bank, and Arab states have described it as a "red line".

"It's not going to happen," Mr Trump said last month.