Democrat Brad Lander, a U.S. House nominee from New York City, was detained, along with dozens of rabbis and activists, by the Israel Defense Forces during an olive harvesting trip in the West Bank on Wednesday.
Lander, who was participating in an initiative to protect Palestinian olive growers from settler violence, posted about the detention on X, noting that the group was “simply harvesting olives” near the Palestinian village of Nahalin, just outside of Bethlehem in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.
A few hours later, he updated that he was “released from IDF custody with a ‘warning.’” Lander, a former New York City comptroller, attributed his release to his public profile – stressing, however, that he is “just a nominee” and not a current member of Congress.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed that Israeli military and police forces arrived at the scene and detained the participants, saying that “harvesting in that area requires prior coordination with the relevant authorities” in order to maintain security in the area.
While Lander was released relatively quickly, he noted that several dozen people who had been harvesting olives with him remained in detention and called for their immediate release.
“These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes,” Lander added, describing these actions as “very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.”
Earlier on Wednesday, his second day participating in the harvest, Lander posted an interview with an activist, who detailed stories of a mother and two children who were attacked by settlers earlier this year. He said that “These are the kinds of assaults that Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to constantly.”
Lander first posted about his trip on Monday, explaining that he was joining the “Protect the Harvest” coalition, organized by Israelis for Peace and Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine. The goals of the initiative, he said, are both to protect the harvesters and to “shed a light on the reality of the occupation.”
He also stressed the importance of providing a sustained, international “commitment to protecting Palestinian communities from settler violence, forced displacement, and the ongoing threats to their right to remain on their land.”
After Monday’s harvest, Lander said that the efforts that day were “peaceful and successful,” while noting that “violence unfortunately is never far away.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed Lander in the U.S. House race, said that while he’s “thankful that Brad has been released,” there are other New Yorkers who remain in detention.
“Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is,” Mamdani said. In a remark about the impact of the last three years of the Gaza war, he also accused the Israeli government of committing “a horrific genocide against Palestinians, killing more than 74,000 people over the last few years alone.”
Lander’s visit to the West Bank occurred amid an increase in settler violence against Palestinians, including, in recent weeks, those trying to pick their olives. While some Israelis say the uptick is a response to stone-throwing and stabbing incidents, many Palestinians believe that settlers are inciting these confrontations.
As of mid-October, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that nearly 200 settler attacks related to the olive harvest had resulted in casualties or property damage.
The Israeli organization Rabbis for Human Rights reported that 90 members of its group, together with American activists, were detained with Lander on Wednesday morning. The volunteers, the group said in a statement, had spent about two hours harvesting when “large forces of the Israeli army, police and Border Police arrived and presented a closed military zone order valid for 24 hours.”
Although representatives of the volunteers said the group had agreed to leave the area, the IDF still detained the participants, demanded identification and took them to a police station, separating foreign nationals from Israelis, according to the organization.
“We came to accompany farmers to land they have not been able to reach in three years,” Anton Goodman, acting executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said in a statement. “Instead of protecting people working their own land, the army is removing them from it, and detaining those who came to stand beside them.”
Anna Kislanski, executive director of the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism, condemned the detentions, stressing in a statement that the volunteers simply “sought to provide assistance and express solidarity with Palestinian communities that are attacked on a daily basis by Jewish extremists.”
“It is inconceivable that, instead of arresting and prosecuting the Jewish extremists who engage in theft and violence, security forces are arresting rabbi activists who are acting in accordance with Jewish values of love for humanity and the pursuit of justice,” Kislanski added, calling for their immediate release.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of the New York City-based movement T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, reported on Wednesday that she and 11 other T’ruah-affiliated American rabbis were among those detained.
“Rather than protecting Palestinian farmers and ensuring their right to work their own land, the Israeli military forcibly removed those who came to provide a protective presence,” Jacobs said, describing this action as “an outrageous abuse of power, and part of a systematic, state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing.”
“The Israeli government is actively advancing the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank,” she continued. “We will not be intimidated into silence. We will continue standing alongside Palestinian farmers and communities fighting to remain on their land.”
Gilad Kariv – a Knesset member running for reelection with the Democrats, a liberal Zionist opposition party – slammed the military’s actions, calling upon the government to “stop this madness.”
A failure to do so, Kariv argued, could “create enormous damage to relations with the Jews of the United States, and justifiably so.”
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that given the security risks associated with uncoordinated harvests, military forces and officers from both the Israel Border Police and the Israel Police’s Judean and Samaria District detained those involved.
“Authorized olive harvests have taken place and continue to take place,” the IDF statement said, noting that about 100 coordinated harvests have occurred.
“As in previous years, security forces are working to facilitate a safe and orderly olive harvest season,” the statement added, noting their “firm commitment to enabling harvesting without any unusual incidents or interruptions.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused Lander of conducting “a calculated provocation,” participating in an “outrageous” political stunt and ignoring instructions requested by his staff prior to the visit.
The ministry stressed that had any injuries occurred due to “his reckless political theater, Lander would undoubtedly have been among the first to demand that Israeli authorities intervene and provide protection.”
“Brad Lander came looking for a confrontation,” the statement added. “Now he is pretending to be its victim.”
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