Israel Detains NY Candidate Brad Lander During West Bank Olive Harvest
Brad Lander, a Democratic US House nominee, was held for about three hours with dozens of rabbis and volunteers helping Palestinian olive farmers.
Israeli forces on Wednesday detained Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for a New York congressional seat, along with dozens of rabbis and volunteers who had joined Palestinian farmers for the annual olive harvest in the occupied West Bank. Lander said he was released after about three hours with a warning, while many others in the group remained in custody hours later, according to CBS New York and NBC New York.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel’s military, said the group had carried out an unauthorized harvest in an area that requires advance coordination and that the activity posed a security risk because it took place near an Israeli community. Lander rejected that explanation and described the detentions as an effort to undermine Palestinians’ rights.
What happened
Lander, a former New York City comptroller who won the Democratic primary for New York’s 10th District earlier this year, was traveling with the Protect the Harvest coalition, a network that sends volunteers to accompany Palestinian farmers during the olive season. CBS New York reported that roughly 60 volunteers and rabbis from the coalition had gone out to guard farmers who had faced weeks of attacks by Israeli settlers.
In posts on X cited by NBC New York and CBS New York, Lander said he was picking olives in a grove near Nehalim when he and the group were detained. He said the land was a private field owned by a Palestinian farmer who had invited them. By his account, a security vehicle from a nearby Israeli settlement spotted the group and appeared to call in the authorities, after which IDF soldiers and Israeli police arrived.
Accounts of the exact location varied. MS NOW, citing Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli group that campaigns for Palestinian rights, reported that the volunteers had been accompanying harvesters in a village just outside Bethlehem. That outlet also reported that soldiers and police told the group it was inside a closed military zone, something Rabbis for Human Rights said the volunteers had no way of knowing.
Lander said he believed his public profile was a factor in his release. According to MS NOW, he told soldiers he was a nominee and not yet a member of Congress. He said several dozen rabbis and other participants were still being held, and he told followers they faced a risk of deportation. Aziz Abu Sarah of Protect the Harvest told CBS New York there were rumors of deportations and that many of those detained were rabbis. The official number of people detained, and whether any were later expelled, had not been confirmed by Israeli authorities at the time of the reports.
Competing accounts
In a statement posted on X and reported by NBC New York, the IDF said soldiers, Border Police and the Judea and Samaria District Police had responded to an “uncoordinated olive harvest” in an area requiring prior authorization. Judea and Samaria is the term the Israeli government uses for the West Bank. MS NOW reported that the military said it detained a number of Palestinian harvesters as well as dozens of people accompanying them because no advance request had been submitted, and that such coordination is needed for security and public order.
Lander disputed that version, calling the IDF’s claim a “bald-face lie,” CBS New York reported. He wrote that harvesting olives is not a crime under any law he knows and described the Israeli occupation as a crime under international law. He also said Palestinians “face far worse consequences every day,” according to MS NOW.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an early Lander supporter, condemned the detention and praised what he called Lander’s moral clarity, CBS New York reported.
Why it matters
The olive harvest, which runs through the fall, is an economic mainstay for many Palestinian families in the West Bank, a territory Israel has occupied since 1967 and where Palestinians seek a future state. Human rights groups have long reported that harvest season brings a rise in confrontations, as settlers attempt to block or harass farmers working land near settlements. Israeli and international volunteers often go along as a “protective presence,” betting that outside observers deter violence.
The detentions come amid heightened tension. MS NOW reported that settler violence has risen ahead of Israel’s October 27 national election. Last week, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was seriously injured while documenting a settler attack, and Israeli police said they had arrested 10 suspected participants, according to that outlet.
The episode also carries political weight in the United States. Lander, who is Jewish, has criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and called for ending US military aid to Israel. He defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the primary for a district covering lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, and is on the ballot in the November midterm elections.
What comes next
Lander arrived in the region over the weekend and planned to remain in the West Bank through Friday to meet with Israelis and Palestinians, CBS New York reported. The fate of the remaining detainees, including foreign nationals who could face deportation, remained unclear. Israel has in past harvest seasons deported foreign activists accused of entering closed military zones or violating the terms of their visas.
