The deportations come amid escalating—and even deadly—violence by Israeli forces against foreign volunteers.
On October 15, Jaxon Schor was detained by Israeli soldiers outside of Nablus in the West Bank, and then transferred to a nearby Israeli police station for interrogation. A US citizen of Jewish descent, Schor had been in the West Bank with Faz3a (pronounced “faz’a”), which facilitates foreign volunteers’ participation in Palestinian demonstrations opposing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, all of which are internationally recognized as belonging to a future Palestinian state.
Spurred by the US government’s ongoing support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, volunteers from the United States, like Schor, have been traveling to the West Bank as part of the movement for Palestinian liberation.
Such foreign volunteers participate in demonstrations, accompany Palestinian farmers, shepherds, and children traveling to and from their farms, fields, and schools, respectively, and document crimes against them, as they are often at risk of attack by Israeli soldiers and settlers hoping to drive them from the area.
The annual olive harvest is a vital aspect of Palestinian culture, identity, and economic independence, as generations of family members care for the same groves—and sometimes even the same trees. For that same reason, Israeli soldiers and settlers often attempt to keep Palestinian farmers from their groves, especially during the harvesting season, effectively depriving them of both economic and moral support.
In response to Israeli violence against Palestinian farmers, Faz3a has been working to “defy colonial rule” by facilitating the participation of international volunteers in the annual olive harvests for the last four years. As Abdul Hakim Wadi, a supervisor with Faz3a, explained to Shareable, the impact of the volunteers is both sentimental and practical.
“This has a positive impact on the psyche, to know that there are free people in the world, and they believe in [Palestinians’] right to live in peace,” Wadi said. He also notes that the presence of volunteers encourages more Palestinians to participate in harvests, demonstrations, and other activities opposing Israel’s genocide and occupation, as Israeli soldiers and settlers are less likely to attack foreigners.
When Schor was detained, he was accompanying Palestinian farmers harvesting olives. Among the Palestinians and other foreign volunteers, Schor says he was seemingly arbitrarily singled out by Israeli soldiers, who confiscated his US passport and then detained him, as there was allegedly “a personal order against me being in the area.”
Schor received no further explanation until the Israeli police arrived more than three hours later to handcuff him and announce—for the first time—that he was being arrested for trespassing in a “closed military zone.” When Schor asked to see the written order closing the area, he was flashed a piece of paper too far away to read and then thrown into a police car. At the station, the charges against Schor escalated further, with an interrogator accusing him of participating in “anti-Israel Hamas demonstrations” and “fighting Jews.” When Schor denied the accusations repeatedly, he was shown the “evidence” against him.
“He flipped a folder around that was on the table and showed me pictures of me that dated back to one of my first days outside, pretty much after I got here,” Schor told Shareable, referring to the interrogator. “They had basically an investigative folder on me.”
Although the photographs only depicted Schor participating in peaceful events like the olive harvest, the alleged evidence sufficed to have him deported and banned from Israel, as well as the occupied Palestinian territories, “indefinitely.” Such deportations are only the latest tactic being used by Israeli forces in their attempt to staunch international solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank.
Schor’s deportation is only the latest tactic that Israeli authorities have used to try to staunch international solidarity with Palestinians. According to a press release issued by Faz3a, the deportation followed multiple detentions, arrests, and even informal expulsions, in which Israeli police drove volunteers to the Israeli-Jordanian border and ordered them to cross. Faz3a describes all of these efforts as “part of the assault on Palestinian ability to resist Israeli colonialism.”
“Their end goal was to deport us”
The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip were all invaded by the Israeli military during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 and continue to be occupied by Israel.
Palestinians have always opposed the Israeli occupation, but opposition both locally and internationally has intensified since the attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza on Israel last October, which Israel responded to by killing more than 44,000 Palestinians, including at least 16,000 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as cited by Al Jazeera. The actual toll of the genocide, obscured by the continued Israeli attacks and blockade, may top 330,000 deaths by the end of the year, according to estimates published in The Guardian.
Events in Gaza have also provided cover for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, which was announced by the Israeli government on November 11, as reported by Middle East Eye and others.
Despite the nonviolent nature of their work, foreign volunteers with Faz3a and the International Solidarity Movement, a similar group, are being targeted by Israeli soldiers, settlers, and even a newly formed police unit, according to Faz3a. For the volunteers, the consequences are often violent and sometimes even deadly.
In July, Faz3a volunteers were accompanying Palestinian farmers in Qusra when they were attacked by masked settlers armed with clubs, severely injuring several farmers and volunteers, including at least four US citizens.
In August, a Faz3a volunteer from the United States was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper while leaving a demonstration in Beita. Later that month, hundreds of masked settlers stormed Qusra, attempting to raze the village to the ground and injuring two Faz3a volunteers, including at least one US citizen.
Violence against volunteers reached its most extreme on September 6, when an Israeli sniper shot and killed Aysenur Eygi, a US volunteer with ISM, who was leaving a demonstration in Beita.
Following international condemnation of Eygi’s killing, Israel appears to have changed tactics from direct violence to deportation of foreign volunteers.
While detaining Schor on October 15, the same Israeli soldiers also detained another Faz’3a volunteer from the United States, Hinou Chung, seemingly by coincidence. Chung was also accompanying the Palestinian farmers outside of Nablus when Israeli soldiers singled out Schor, and Chung decided to stay with Schor to monitor the situation. Although Chung was at first told he was free to leave, the soldiers then decided to detain him, too. Chung had no “personal order” against him, but he was also arrested for allegedly trespassing in a “closed military zone,” accused of being a “terrorist,” and deported on the strength of the alleged evidence against him: one photo with Schor.
“They arrested me at an olive harvest before telling us that we were not allowed to be there, but their end goal was to deport us,” Chung told Shareable. “Their end goal was to find some reason to get us out of the country because they knew we were helping Palestinians.”
“That’s why we go”
While both Chung and Schor are US citizens who were detained, deported, and, in Schor’s case, barred indefinitely from returning to Israel, a close international ally of the United States, neither Chung nor Schor have yet to hear anything regarding their cases from the US government. That silence, however, is far from unexpected as the US government has yet to take action in other, even more extreme cases, such as Eygi’s murder.
In fact, at least four US citizens have been killed by Israeli forces since last October, and the involvement of the US government has started, and thus far ended, with requests for the Israeli government to investigate its own soldiers and settlers. For its part, the Israeli government has yet to hold anyone accountable in any of the cases.
But as both Chung and Schor are quick to point out, Israeli violence against Palestinians is far more extreme than against foreign volunteers such as themselves. While the casualties of the ongoing Israeli genocide are concentrated in Gaza, Israeli soldiers and settlers killed more than 700 Palestinians, including 160 children, in the West Bank since last October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as cited by Al Jazeera. In Beita alone, ISM reports at least three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the start of the genocide.
“It’s terrible for anybody to experience this stuff,” said Schor, contrasting his deportation with the routine violence endured by Palestinians. “But we are still international citizens. We still have a privilege that is undeniable, and that’s why we go, to try to take advantage of that.”
Chung, too, described his deportation as trifling compared to the experiences of the Palestinians he had met in places like Qusra.
“A lot of the children that you talk to in the village, they have bullet wounds, they have knife wounds,” he said. “It’s so matter of fact that, after some time, you get used to it—even though it is very messed up, to think about these children, who are as young as 10 years old, having a bullet wound and just shrugging it off, laughing about it. … One can only imagine how much they have to live through.”
It’s in light of such harrowing experiences, rather than despite them, that Wadi believes volunteers like Chung and Schor will continue coming to the West Bank.
“The presence of solidarity is increasing,” he said, in reference to the volunteers. “The presence of more foreign supporters, and the continuous presence of local and international media, helps in documenting the crimes of the settlers and the occupation army against the Palestinians and foreign supporters, exposing them in the countries of the world.”
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Arvind Dilawar is an independent journalist. His articles, essays and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Daily Beast and elsewhere. Find him online at: adilawar.com
