Israeli army attacks international delegation to Palestine in West Bank

OVIEDO, Spain

The former mayor of Barcelona and a Spanish Member of the European Parliament denounced being attacked Tuesday by the Israeli army while visiting an olive grove with local farmers in the West Bank.

Ada Colau and Jaume Asens are part of an international delegation that arrived Monday and is investigating alleged violations of international law in Palestine during “the coming days.”

They visited olive groves near the town of Qusra on the second day of the trip.

Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona, said as soon as the delegation arrived with local farmers, the Israeli army and armed illegal settlers began surrounding them.

“Indiscriminately, without hardly a word … they started firing tear gas and sonic bombs at people, putting them in danger,” Colau said in a video on Instagram. “We were just here to pick olives – something so simple and innocent – and the Israeli army and armed settlers turned it into an act of war.”

Asens, in a separate video on social media, said they were accompanying a group of farmers who had been consistently prevented from harvesting olives on the farms of their families.

“We thought our presence could dissuade those blocking them, but it did not,” he said. “But we can verify that they were attacked, which violates international law.”

Colau added that a farmer and a journalist had been detained by Israel. She also said the international delegation could confirm that the farmers were entirely unarmed and peaceful before they were attacked.

“This is inadmissible under international law, and it’s intolerable that the international community is looking away. That’s why we are here,” she said.

The delegation, under the coordination of the Progressive International, the National Lawyers Guild of the United States and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers -- brings together legal experts, human rights defenders and parliamentary representatives from across the world.