According to Vietnam News Agency correspondent in the Middle East, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on November 14 announced the establishment of a military zone to close the village of Burin in the West Bank, right before hundreds of left-wing activists and volunteers were expected to come to support Palestinians during the olive harvest season.
The trip was planned as part of a broader effort to help Palestinians harvest olives safely, amid continued BL targeting of harvesters. The move to block the activists comes amid accusations that Israeli security forces have repeatedly failed to prevent extremist Jewish settlers from carrying out attacks.
After being prevented from reaching their destination, the activists organized a temporary protest, with the participation of MP Gilad Kariv of the left-wing Democratic alliance.
Since the start of the olive harvest season last month, the IDF has repeatedly issued orders to establish closed military zones across the West Bank, repeatedly preventing Palestinians from entering their own land to harvest olives, while this year’s crop was already difficult because of low rainfall last winter.
The effort to support Palestinians in Burin, near Nablus, on November 14 was jointly organized by left-wing groups Peace Now and Rabbis for Human Rights, among others. A total of 7 buses carrying activists are expected to participate in the harvest.
Activists were not informed in advance about the closed military zone, and instead the IDF and Israeli police stopped the buses as they were traveling through the West Bank.
This is not the first time the IDF has imposed restrictions on access to Palestinian olive groves this season. Although the Israeli military affirmed that the order to establish a closed military zone was intended to prevent conflicts between harvesters and settlers, activists and locals denounced that the number of attacks by extremist settlers had not decreased.
Data from the IDF Central Command shows that ethnically motivated violence cases in the West Bank have increased sharply in the last two years. If 2024 witnessed 675 incidents, then only by November 2025, this number had reached 704. Since the beginning of the year, 174 Palestinians have been injured in settler attacks, up from 155 cases in the same period last year. Since the attack by the Hamas movement on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023 alone, 376 Palestinians have been injured in incidents related to settlers. Since the olive harvest season began on October 19, there have been 50 recorded cases of violence, injuring 86 Palestinians – mostly in the Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron areas.
Faced with increasing political pressure and public opinion, the IDF said it has opened a dialogue channel with clergy, local leaders and community representatives to deal with extremist youth groups, many of whom do not reside in the West Bank. Israeli defense officials estimate there are currently about 200 radical youth active in the area.