Israel deports journalist, 77-year-old activist among 14 on Palestinian solidarity mission

A group of Western activists who travelled to West Bank on solidarity missions with Palestinians has been deported from Israel, the country's Population and Immigration Authority announced on Sunday.

"Fourteen foreigners who were staying in Israel on tourist visas were deported after being detained by security forces. They were deported for having violated legal provisions of their visas and disrupting public order," the authority said in a statement.

"The activists were from the United States, Canada, Italy and Germany," it added.

The group was arrested on Friday near Ramallah following an "altercation" with Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to the Human Rights Defenders Fund, an organisation that provides legal support to activists visiting the region to show solidarity with Palestinians.

Israeli police said three Palestinians were also arrested. In a statement, police accused the foreign activists of engaging in “provocative activities” aimed at triggering clashes and supporting “anti-Israeli media campaigns”.

However, Sharona Weiss, head of international advocacy at the Human Rights Defenders Fund, told AFP that the foreigners had been accompanying Palestinian farmers on their land “when settlers arrived and began attacking them."

Weiss claimed that a journalist and a 77-year-old activist were among those deported and that another 15 foreigners, including a journalist, had been expelled from Israel the previous week.

The deportations come amid growing international criticism of violence by settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since 1967.

The Israeli rights group Yesh Din said it had documented more than 850 acts of violence by settlers during the five-week olive harvest. Settlers have also attacked journalists covering the harvest, including photojournalists, and assaulted a visiting French mayor.

Israel has expressed anger over international criticism and ordered the closure of the British consulate after London imposed sanctions on products from Israeli settlements.