Israeli police arrest US-born rabbi after clash with settlers in occupied West Bank

Israeli police arrested a US-born activist rabbi on Wednesday after an apparent clash with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, Haaretz reported.

Israeli Reform Rabbi Arik Ascherman was arrested near the Palestinian village of Duma in the Nablus area of the occupied West Bank. The exact reason for the arrest is currently unknown, but he and an organisation he founded are known for enlisting volunteers to provide a protective presence for Palestinians against Israeli settlers.

Rabbi Ascherman was previously arrested on 21 September after he called Israeli police to report an armed Israeli settler trespassing on Palestinian property near Duma.

He was charged with harassment, illegal construction and obstructing a police officer, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

After that arrest, the rabbi uploaded footage on 22 September of two settlers, one armed, herding sheep between the village's homes on his Facebook page, where he documents illegal Israeli settler activity.

Ascherman is seen asking police officers in another video he uploaded: "Aren't you arresting them? Do you believe them [Israeli settlers] and not me?" The policeman replies: "Yes".

After Israeli police arrested Ascherman in September, Haaretz reported that they accused him of filing "false and unfounded calls in a systematic attempt to incite, provoke and distort reality".

An Israeli police statement accused him of issuing "false reports" that did not "have any basis" despite a Palestinian shepherd also filing a complaint with police.

Settler attacks

Israeli settlers have conducted numerous attacks on Duma. An off-duty Israeli soldier killed 35-year-old-Palestinian Thameen Khalil Reda Dawabsheh in August. The Israeli army claimed that dozens of Palestinians were throwing rocks at the off-duty soldier and an Israeli citizen, and that they fired in self-defence.

Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank have reached unprecedented levels following October 7. The United Nations reported that more than 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers between 1 January 2024 and the beginning of July 2025.

Activist Awdah Hathleen, who worked on Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was killed by settler Yinon Levi in August, who had previously been sanctioned under US President Joe Biden's administration. Levi was released despite video footage showing the moment he shot Hawthaleen.

Americans Sayfollah Musallet and Khamis Ayyad were also killed by Israeli settlers in July.

Rabbi Ascherman is the executive director of the human rights organization Torat Tzedek (Torah of Justice), which he founded in 2017. He previously served in various capacities for two decades in the organisation Rabbis for Human Rights. He was born in Pennsylvania, grew up in the US and studied at Harvard University. He emigrated to Israel in the 1990s.

In a 2025 documentary called A Protective Presence, Ascherman says: "When the land becomes more important than that Palestinian shepherd or farmer, that's actually idolatry because they are created in the image of God, not the land." 

Ascherman was physically assaulted by a 17-year-old Israeli settler in 2015, one of many attacks he has faced. The teenager attempted to strangle and beat the rabbi on the head. The teenager's attorney at the time was Israel's current national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir.