Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander was detained by Israeli security forces Wednesday while accompanying Palestinian farmers during an olive harvest in the occupied West Bank, before being released with a warning hours later, according to social media statements by the candidate and reports from advocacy organizations.
Lander, a former New York City comptroller who is campaigning to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District, said he was taken into custody alongside dozens of rabbis and international volunteers near the Palestinian village of Nahalin, located outside Bethlehem and close to the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit.
Israeli military and police personnel declared the agricultural area a closed military zone before escorting participants onto buses and transporting them to a police station, according to human rights organizations monitoring the event. The detention involved approximately 80 to 90 individuals, representing what two Israeli attorneys described to NPR as the largest mass detention of activists in the West Bank in at least a decade.
Detention During Olive Harvest
Lander had traveled to the West Bank as part of the Protect the Harvest coalition, an international effort organized to assist Palestinian agricultural workers. Israeli and American advocacy groups, including Rabbis for Human Rights and the U.S.-based organization T’ruah, took part in the initiative.
Volunteers and farmers had spent about two hours picking olives before Israeli security forces intervened and declared the closure, Rabbis for Human Rights said in a statement. The organization noted that the farmers had been unable to reach that specific grove for three years.
While seated aboard a transport bus, Lander posted photos and video to social media criticizing the military action. In his posts, he maintained that harvesting olives violates no law and argued that the ongoing military occupation itself breaches international standards, NBC News reported.
Anton Goodman, the acting executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, stated that authorities removed the volunteers despite their offers to depart peacefully once informed of the sudden military closure, according to the New York Post.
Release and Lingering Custody
Hours after the incident began, Lander announced on X that Israeli authorities had let him go while retaining dozens of his fellow volunteers in detention, Al Jazeera English reported.
“I’ve been released from IDF custody with a ‘warning,’ apparently because of my public profile,” Lander stated, adding that he urged officials to release the remaining volunteers immediately. Lander noted that he informed the officers he was merely a congressional nominee rather than a sitting member of the U.S. House.
The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli police did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the incident or the legal status of the remaining detainees.
Rising Tensions in the Region
The confrontation comes amid heightened volatility surrounding the seasonal Palestinian olive harvest. Palestinians in several West Bank communities told NPR that reaching their groves has grown increasingly dangerous following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, citing a surge in confrontations with Israeli settlers.
United Nations data published in July documented that more than 900 Palestinians suffered injuries in settler-related incidents since the beginning of the year, while 76 Palestinians in the West Bank were killed by Israeli forces or settlers or succumbed to related injuries over the same timeframe.
Tensions in the area escalated further last week after two high-profile attacks by settlers, including an incident in which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was injured, NBC News reported. Israeli police later announced the arrest of 10 people suspected of involvement in violence in the area.
Lander, who defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman in a June primary race centered largely on foreign policy, has been an outspoken critic of Israeli military actions and previously characterized the conduct of the war in Gaza as a genocide. He is not the first American politician to face scrutiny in the territory; in July, Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, reported being detained by Israeli authorities for more than an hour during a visit to Khirbet Zanuta.
Organizers said legal representatives are working to secure the release of the remaining rabbis and international volunteers still being held for questioning.
