Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free!

SOUTH OF NABLUS, West Bank (RNS) — On a breezy Thursday morning in October, two Palestinian brothers greeted a busload of rabbis and other activists with small cups of strong, black Arabic coffee and sweet dates before beginning what they hoped would be a full day of harvesting olives.

But 45 minutes later in a field a few kilometers away, rabbis from the delegation got word that a group of Israeli settlers was approaching. The farmers made a quick decision to stop everything. Everyone walked away with the olives still lying on tarps.

Since they arrived in the West Bank on Oct. 27, a group of 19 rabbis, rabbinical students and activists from the U.S.-based Rabbis for Ceasefire has answered the call of Palestinian farmers to help harvest their crop amid constant interruptions by the Israeli military and Jewish settlers.…