“Jews have a right to everything before Arabs in this country,” an IDF soldier told Palestinians while blocking access to their own olive grove. Settlers, however, were allowed to stay. At least 14 Palestinians were wounded, and at least 7 were detained over the weekend. This is the second weekend of the olive harvest in the West Bank. For 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families, it provides a major of income. And for that very reason, the harvest is heavily targeted by settler terrorists and the IDF. In many areas of the West Bank, mostly near settlements, Palestinians are forced to obtain an IDF permit to reach their groves. The military often severely restricts access or denies it outright. Where permits aren’t required, settlers attack harvesters, and the IDF then comes in to back them up. Near Birzeit, a group of Palestinians and Rabbis for Human Rights activists came to harvest, only to be attacked with clubs by settler terrorists who had broken into the grove. The activists called the IDF, which allowed the terrorists to stay, but detained a Palestinian farmer and ordered all the harvesters to leave. Last week, the IDF explicitly warned olive grove owners that they would not be allowed to harvest their olives if solidarity activists were present. This is only one example of how settlers, terrorists, and the IDF work together to prevent Palestinians from harvesting their olives. Since the harvest began, @Yesh_Din has documented at least 109 incidents of settler violence directly related to the harvest in 75 localities across the West Bank. Settler terror, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the IDF that plays the central role. The IDF not only protects settler terrorists, sometimes even as they steal olives or attack Palestinians right before soldiers’ eyes. It also maintains a permit system that makes harvesting nearly impossible for tens of thousands of Palestinian farmers. Attacks on the olive harvest are part of Israel’s broader policies of ethnic cleansing and annexation in the West Bank. Through terror and destroyed livelihoods, Palestinians are forced off their land. Since October 2023, over 4,700 Palestinians, roughly half of them children, have been displaced.

Israeli Human Rights Organizations Welcome International Action Against Israel's Settlement Project in OPT We, Israeli human rights organizations documenting Israel's policies and their impact on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, welcome the British government's decision to recognize and take action against Israel's ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, alongside the statements made by additional states. This is an important and necessary first step to meet States’ legal obligation in response to the rapid expansion of the settlement enterprise, the systematic dispossession of Palestinians from their land and heritage, and escalating state-backed settler violence that can amount to torture. These developments are not sporadic; rather, they are part of a broader effort to drive Palestinian communities from their homes and lands and fundamentally alter the demographic and geographic reality of the oPt. Palestinian communities are being forcibly displaced through a combination of settler violence, land seizure, restrictions on movement and access to land, demolitions, and state policies that facilitate and entrench settlement expansion. The International Court of Justice's July 2024 Advisory Opinion found Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be unlawful, as the UK adopted yesterday. It further affirmed that all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from Israel's unlawful presence and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining that situation. Banning trade and economic activity that sustains or benefits the settlement enterprise is therefore one means through which states can ensure that their own conduct does not contribute to maintaining an unlawful situation or to violations of Palestinians' rights. We urge the international community to take further concrete measures to ensure that its relations with Israel no longer enable Israel's settlement enterprise, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, or its broader assault on Palestinian human rights across all territories under its control. Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; Bimkom; Breaking the Silence; B'tselem; Combatants for Peace; Emek Shaveh; Gisha; MachsomWatch; Parents Against Child Detention; Peace Now; PHRI; The Public Committee against Torture in Israel; Yesh Din; Zazim Community Action September 9, 2026