SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We're going to talk now to one of the people detained by Israeli security forces today. The American Rabbi Jill Jacobs is CEO of the human rights group T'ruah. In a statement, she said this is an outrageous abuse of power and part of a systematic, state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. Israel's government rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing. Jill Jacobs joins us now from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Thanks for talking to us.
JILL JACOBS: Thank you for having me.
DETROW: How long were you detained for today?
JACOBS: We were detained for about six or seven hours in a police station in Beitar Illit, a settlement that was close to where we were picking olives.
DETROW: What was it like in the police station? Was it confrontational? Was it tense? Were you just waiting to be processed? How would you describe it?
JACOBS: We were mostly just waiting to be processed and trying to get some information, understand what was happening. The Israelis, we were there with a group of American rabbis through T'ruah, the organization I lead, as well as there was a group of Israeli rabbis through Rabbis for Human Rights, as well as other foreign and Israeli activists. So the Israelis and the foreign nationals were separated. And we were mostly just waiting for any kind of information.
DETROW: I want to get your response to Ruth Sherlock's piece. Glanced at it, but the Israeli military said in a statement that an olive harvest in this particular area requires a request for security forces. Did the farmers you were working with make that request?
JACOBS: Well, this is just a lie. No such request is necessary. We were in Area C of the West Bank, which is an area under full Israeli control. It's the area where there is Palestinian farmland as well as settlements. And it is 100% legal for Israelis to be there. It's 100% legal for foreign nationals to be there. And it's 100% legal for Palestinians to be there. So we were taken - after we were detained, we were taken to a settlement, to a police station in Beitar Illit, which has the exact same legal status as this area that we were picking olives, right? They're all in Area C of the West Bank. And we didn't need - there's no need for any special permits to be there.
DETROW: OK.
JACOBS: And I also want to - yeah, sorry.
DETROW: So that's one statement. I also want to get your response to a broader statement that came from the foreign ministry, which I'm sure you saw. It said that this was not harvesting olives, as they put it, but harvesting headlines, a calculated political provocation. How do you respond to that?
JACOBS: Well, I can say that we brought a group of rabbis to harvest olives. And, in fact, we spent two days this week. The last two days, we were in a different olive grove, and we harvested olives all day. And that was extremely important because olives are so important for the economic welfare of Palestinian families. They can sustain families for a very long time. And we had two beautiful days of picking olives without the military involved, without anybody involved. We weren't there for the headlines. We were there to pick olives. And that's what we were trying to do also this morning. And we actually had a couple of hours that we were able to pick olives.
And that was especially important because this particular olive grove, the villagers who own the grove have not been able to access it since October 7. So for the past three years, they haven't been able to access their olives. And this was the first time that they were able to access their olive groves. And that's why we were there. We didn't - we weren't asking for the military to come. We weren't asking for lots and lots of press to come. We were there to harvest olives and to accompany these Palestinians, as Israeli and foreign activists are doing every single day.
DETROW: Yeah.
JACOBS: There's volunteers out in the olive fields every single day with Palestinians.
DETROW: Last week, I spoke with Heidi Levine, The Washington Post photographer who was beaten by Israeli settlers during another olive harvest. How do you explain, how do you make sense of why the olive harvest in particular has become such a point of tension, of confrontation, of times, violence?
JACOBS: Well, there's - the policy of the state right now is to take more and more land away from Palestinians, particularly in Area C, and to expand settlements and to push Palestinians into smaller and smaller pockets, particularly to push them into the big cities. And so the settler violence that we've seen over this season and really over the last few years that has ramped up is part of a government policy to push Palestinians off of their land. And it is so that Israeli settlers can take over more and more of the West Bank. So it is a policy of ethnic cleansing that is being carried out by these violent settlers.
And we know, of course, that the military came and arrested us today. But they don't do almost anything about the settlers who are out every single day stealing olives, poisoning olive trees, assaulting people, vandalizing property. Somehow, the police are not able to catch those folks. And those settlers are, of course, a direct threat to Palestinians. They're also a security threat to the state of Israel. They're a threat to any possibility of there being an Israeli state next to a Palestinian state, which is the only way for these people - for both peoples to live in peace.
DETROW: You...
JACOBS: And instead, the police and the army are out arresting peace activists who are doing nothing more than harvesting olives.
DETROW: Right. I want to make sure I get one more question in here. You said that you had gone two days before this. They passed well, no problems. Are you or your group going, planning to harvest olives again tomorrow or later on this week?
JACOBS: We are still considering what we're going to do in the next couple of days. But we know that certainly there will be folks out tomorrow and the next day and every single day of the harvest going forward, in partnership with Palestinians, accompanying them in their lands. And I know that many members of our group are hoping to be back out there tomorrow because this is what we came for. We came to harvest olives and to ensure that Palestinians are able to access their olive trees and their olives.
DETROW: That is Rabbi Jill Jacobs. Her organization is called T'ruah. Thank you so much for talking to us.
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