‘Settler violence is out of control': How a 'perfect storm' of IDF-backed attacks and Israel's extremist government is terrorizing the West Bank

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Nov 13, 2025

Lila Stillman-Utterback, a young Jewish American activist recently deported from Israel, shares her shocking experience of being arrested while volunteering during the olive harvest. Anton Goodman, from Rabbis for Human Rights, highlights the alarming rise of settler violence in the West Bank, linking it to extremist government policies that embolden lawlessness. They discuss the cultural significance of the harvest, the challenges faced by volunteers, and the disturbing trend of youth recruitment into violence, painting a harrowing picture of the current situation on the ground.

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ANECDOTE

Deportation After Olive Harvest

Lila Stillman-Utterback recounts being detained after an olive harvest and rapidly deported from Israel as an 18-year-old volunteer.
She describes calm earlier harvests, surprise at the harsh 10-year ban, and awaiting legal appeal.

ANECDOTE

Harvest As Meditative Solidarity

Lila describes the olive harvests as meditative, physically helpful, and a meaningful way to express Jewish solidarity with Palestinians.
She emphasizes the communal, interfaith nature of harvesting and its deep cultural resonance.

INSIGHT

A Peak Moment Of Lawlessness

Anton Goodman warns the situation during this olive harvest season is unprecedented with a peak in settler violence across many communities.
He links the spike to extremist influence in government and diminished rule of law by police and army.

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Olive harvest season has become a flashpoint in the West Bank in recent years as extremist Israeli settlers regularly threaten and physically harm Palestinian harvesters, but this year, “the situation on the ground is out of control,” Anton Goodman of Rabbis for Human Rights said on the Haaretz Podcast.

“We have never seen anything like this,” Goodman emphasized, noting that in the past, “We've seen settler attacks, and we've seen unnecessary army aggression and restrictions, but we've never seen such a peak moment of violence affecting so many communities.”

Goodman described the situation as a “perfect storm” with “extremists at the heart of the Israeli government, who have sent clear policy recommendations to the police” to refrain from arresting violent settlers so that “the rule of law is totally diminished.”

He also outlined the ways in which mainstream Religious Zionist institutions and their leaders are complicit – such as when the prominent rabbi Yaakov Medan encouraged his yeshiva students to spend the High Holidays at outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law.

Also on the podcast, Leila Stillman-Utterback recounts her experience as an 18-year-old Jewish American volunteer who was recently arrested at an olive harvest and then deported and banned from Israel for 10 years. While Israel has deported non-Jewish solidarity volunteers for years, Stillman-Utterback’s case is believed to be the first time Israel has deported a Diaspora Jew from the West Bank.

Speaking from the United States, Stillman-Utterback said a court challenge to banning her entry to Israel is underway.

Maintaining her connection to Israel, she said, is “incredibly important to me, even though I am extremely frustrated with the actions of the Israeli government, both in terms of the impunity for settler violence and their actions in Gaza.”

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