A soldier was filmed blocking a Palestinian olive harvest near Ramallah on Friday because, he said, “this is a Jewish state” and “Jews have a prior right over Arabs to everything in this country.”
The soldier documented in the central West Bank’s Birzeit area also said settlers were allowed to be there because those were his orders.
The IDF did not immediately comment on the incident.
Near the village of Yabrud, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) east of Birzeit, separate footage on Friday showed settlers trapping a Palestinian vehicle and assaulting its occupants, reportedly a father and son, who fled.
Police said they arrested a 15-year-old settler on suspicion of involvement and seized one of the cars that the perpetrators used in the attack, which police described as a “nationalist” assault and car theft.
Rabbis for Human Rights, which published the footage from the Birzeit-area olive grove, said the Birzeit incident occurred as Israeli activists with the group were helping with the harvest on private Palestinian land in the West Bank’s Area C, which Israelis can legally enter without notifying Israel’s Civil Administration.
Nonetheless, soldiers shut down the harvest and removed the Palestinians and activists from the area, according to Rabbis for Human Rights.
The footage published by the group from the scene showed a masked soldier in full gear confronting Israeli activists, who asked why Jewish settlers could be in the area but Palestinians couldn’t.
“I don’t know if you remember, but this is a Jewish state. So Jews have a prior right over Arabs to everything in this country, whether you like it or not,” the soldier said.
