Bent under the weight of his bulletproof vest but intimidated by the threat of violence, Rabbi Arik Ascherman guards an olive grove in the occupied West Bank, protecting Palestinian farmers from the growing violence of Israeli settlers.
“There is no excuse, there is no explanation, no justification for what Hamas did” during its October 7 attacks in southern Israel, said the 64-year-old, born in the United States and a veteran activist with the Rabbis group for human rights, referring to the deadly incursion into southern Israel by Hamas, the group that rules Gaza.
“But the average Israeli today is not willing or willing to distinguish between Palestinian terrorists and terrorized Palestinians,” he added, referring to reports of an increase in settler attacks since October 7.
“This is a total war between two peoples,” Ascherman said outside the village of Taybeh, near Ramallah, as farmers beat olives weeping with oil onto thin-striped tarpaulins surrounding the trunks of trees.
“No one at this point is willing to help the Palestinians, because of our pain and our anger. »
Nearby, his comrades – even if there are only a handful – prove him wrong. They are posted on lookout, ready to confront the settlers who may descend at any time to harass and fight the farmers.
“In the 28 years I’ve been doing this, I generally don’t consider myself marginalized,” said Ascherman, who has long campaigned against settler violence in the West Bank.
“There have always been a significant number of Israelis who, at least passively, supported and accepted what we were doing,” he said. “Today it has evaporated. There is almost no support.