WorldUS politics
New York congressional candidate Brad Lander briefly detained by Israeli forces in West Bank
The Democrat, who is running for Congress in New York's 10th district, was held with rabbis and volunteers helping Palestinian farmers pick olives. Others in the group remained in custody.
Key points
- Brad Lander was detained while harvesting olives with Palestinian farmers and released with a warning.
- Activists said 42 Israelis and 28 foreign citizens in the group were held.
- The Israeli military called the harvest uncoordinated and a security risk.
Israeli forces briefly detained Brad Lander, the Democratic candidate for a New York congressional seat, in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday morning as he helped Palestinian farmers harvest olives with a group of rabbis and volunteers.
Lander, a former New York City comptroller, said he was released with a warning. Several others in the group remained in custody, including a Palestinian woman whose family owns the grove.
“The occupation is a crime under international law,” Lander wrote on social media. “Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.” He called the detentions “one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves.”
Who was held
Anton Goodman, acting chief executive of Rabbis for Human Rights, said 42 Israeli members of the delegation and 28 foreign citizens were held, and were taken to a police station in the nearby settlement of Beitar Illit. He said the group had been told the area was a closed military zone and had agreed to leave at once, but was detained anyway “for identification purposes”.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who heads the US group T’ruah, was among about a dozen American rabbis detained. She said Americans, Canadians and Britons had their passports taken. “The Israeli government is actively advancing the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank,” she said.
The Israeli military said the harvest had not been coordinated, posed a security risk, and that farming in the area required advance requests. Protect the Harvest, which organised the volunteers, said there had been no clashes before soldiers arrived.
Reaction in New York
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said: “Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is.” He added: “I am thankful that Brad has been released. But other New Yorkers remain detained, and they must be released immediately.”
Lander is running in New York’s 10th congressional district after beating the sitting congressman, Dan Goldman, in the Democratic primary earlier this year.
The episode comes in what rights groups Yesh Din and the Palestinian Farmers’ Union describe as the most violent olive season in recent memory. The Israeli group Peace Now says the army has expanded by nearly 30% the farmland Palestinians may not enter without prior approval.