(RNS) — Leila Stillman-Utterback assumed she had a certain privilege working with Palestinians in the West Bank in their struggle against violent settlers who are threatening their lives and livelihoods.
She was, after all, an American Jew.
So, on a four-month solidarity program in Israel, the 18-year-old high school graduate from Vermont volunteered to be among Palestinians as part of a protective presence campaign in the South Hebron Hills. She also spent several days helping Palestinians in a different part of the West Bank pick olives during their fall harvest amid intensifying attacks from settlers.
But on Oct. 29, she and another American Jewish volunteer were arrested in the Palestinian village of Burin, deported from Israel and banned from returning for 10 years.
“I had always been told that my Jewishness protected me from deportation,” said Stillman-Utterback, speaking to RNS from her family home in Vermont. “I understand that the current government does not want people like me or like other activists doing work in the West Bank, but I think I felt a sense of betrayal. I was being told that I was not the right kind of Jew.”
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