NEW YORK -- Kate Rafael leaves for the West Bank this weekend, joining about 120 foreigners who plan to help the Palestinians during the olive harvest amid reports that Israeli settlers have harassed and attacked the olive-pickers.

"I'm going to try to increase the protection for the Palestinian people as they try to complete their harvest, which is incredibly important to their economy," said Rafael, 42.

The Jewish woman from Berkeley, Calif., calls Israel's occupation "brutal" and believes she has a "personal responsibility to take an active role in helping bring justice and peace."

A unidentied relative attends to Palestinian Atef Beni Jaber, 40, at the Rafidya Hospital in the northern West Bank city of Nablus Saturday Oct. 5, 2002. Jaber of Aqraba village, along with others were gathering olives from their trees when about 15 settlers from the nearby Jewish settlement of Itamar attacked them with rocks and rifle butts. Doctors said all four were hospitalized with severe cuts and wounds. Settlers from Itamar have been trying to expand into lands long held by Arab communities. (APPhoto/Lefteris Pitarakis)

The activists -- American, British, German, Japanese -- are linked to the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that gained attention this spring when they got between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Israeli police confirm that Jewish settlers repeatedly have harassed Palestinians gathering olives or interfered with their work in recent weeks.

On Oct. 6, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed while harvesting olives near the village of Aqraba. Palestinians and B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, claim the shots were fired by settlers from nearby Itamar.

One settler was arrested, six others questioned and six weapons seized, said Gil Kleiman, an Israeli police spokesman. The arrested settler was released a few hours later and no charges were filed, he said.

Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the settlers' leadership, had no comment on the shooting, but said some settlers are concerned that Palestinians might use olive groves as cover for terrorist attacks on settlements.

"We are against any settler taking a rifle and killing Palestinians," Mor-Yosef said. "But at the same time, we have to have open eyes for possible terrorists."

Police are running ballistic checks on the bullet that killed the man, Hani Yousef, and results are expected within days, police said.

"We take these things very seriously," Kleiman said. "But we have a terror war, and that makes things difficult. There's a lot going on."

B'Tselem has also complained of two cases of Jewish settlers harvesting olives from Arab-owned groves. Mor-Yosef said he had not heard of such a thing but insisted anyone stealing olives would be arrested.

The activists also aim to protest the destruction of tens of thousands of olive trees by the Israeli military and settlers. The Israelis say they remove trees used by Palestinian gunmen for ambushes against Israeli vehicles.

The foreign sympathizers hope their presence will prevent further trouble. But Israeli officials claim that they come to the West Bank with the object of confronting the military and breaking Israeli laws. Several have been deported, or refused entry into the country.

Peace Now, the Israeli peace movement, opposes the settlers. Spokeswoman Galia Golan said she did not feel strongly either way about foreign campaigners intervening, and said the Israeli army clearly was failing to protect the Palestinians.

A better solution, Golan said, would be to have an international peacekeeping mission, perhaps led by the United States, to separate the Palestinians and Israelis.

Most of the campaigners will stay with Arab families in rural areas near the cities of Tulkarem and Qalqiliya, said Zaid Khalil, a New Yorker who has been there since August organizing the campaign.

Rafael said she was raised in a family with strong Zionist views. While her parents and siblings do not necessarily agree with her, they have not tried to dissuade her from making the trip.

"Maybe none of them agree with what I'm doing, but they realize that I'm doing it out of a deep moral obligation," she said. "The values that we were raised with are that what you believe, you had to act on. You can't just sit around."

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press

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