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In response to the Israeli military\u2019s arrest of Palestinian farmer and land defender Ghassan Najjar during a pre-dawn raid on the village of Burin south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, on 27 October, Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International\u2019s Senior Director for Research, Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIsraeli authorities must immediately release Ghassan Najjar who was arrested solely because of his peaceful activism to protect the olive harvest season in Burin. Israeli intelligence agents had explicitly threatened Ghassan Najjar, co-founder of Burin\u2019s Land and Farming Agricultural Cooperative, that he would be arrested if he did not stop his activism. His activism includes community organizing, supporting mutual aid among farmers through the cooperative, organizing an annual Kite Festival in the village and leading numerous cultural initiatives. Ghassan Najjar had been facing repeated threats since the start of the olive harvest season and their frequency intensified during the week prior to his arrest. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGhassan Najjar\u2019s arrest illustrates the devastating twin threat facing Palestinian farmers and land defenders: Israeli military restrictions and state-driven settler violence prevent them from accessing their land and harvesting their olives while the Israeli authorities intensify their crackdown through arbitrary arrests, threats, and intimidation for trying to protect what is left of their land.<\/p>\n
\u201cA military interrogator informed Ghassan Najjar\u2019s lawyer that he is likely to be placed under administrative detention, a tactic systematically used by Israeli authorities to punish and persecute Palestinians by holding them indefinitely without charges or trial based on secret evidence they cannot access. As of October 2026, Israeli authorities had been holding 3,101 Palestinians under administrative detention. Ghassan Najjar had already spent nearly a decade in Israeli jails, mostly under administrative detention. His first arrest came when he was just 15 years old.<\/p>\n