IDF detains US congressional candidate Brad Lander at West Bank olive harvest, released after police learned he was a candidate
While rabbis remain in custody, army expanded closed farmland by 30 percent this year
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Israeli forces detain and then release US congressional candidate at West Bank harvest
independent.co.uk
Israeli forces detained Brad Lander, the Democratic candidate for New York's tenth congressional district, on Wednesday while he volunteered with Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank. He was released hours later — the Israeli police said he was freed "after it became known that he was a congressional candidate." Dozens of other volunteers detained alongside him, including a group of American rabbis, remained in custody.
The Israeli military said the farmers and volunteers had failed to seek prior approval and that the detentions responded to "the security risk posed by conducting an uncoordinated harvest near an Israeli community," later adding that the arrival of dozens of activists was "an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process."
The coordination requirement is the story's arithmetic. According to Peace Now, the army expanded by nearly 30 percent this year the area of farmland Palestinians cannot enter without prior military approval, to some 34 square miles. The military declined to comment on the figures but confirmed farmers must coordinate access to land under Israeli security control. Yesh Din and the Palestinian Farmers' Union describe the 2026 harvest as the most violent in recent memory, with hundreds of thefts, clashes and arson attacks — much of it on land outside Palestinian villages where settlers have erected unauthorized outposts. Settler attacks earlier in the season hospitalized some two dozen farmers and left a Washington Post photographer beaten.
Lander, who is endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, wrote after his release: "The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn't a crime under any law I know." Rabbi Jill Jacobs, chief executive of T'ruah and one of those detained, accused the Israeli government of "using its military to deny Palestinians access to their land and intimidate those who stand alongside them." Representative Ro Khanna of California said Israeli forces detained him during a July visit to the West Bank.
The farmers were not released with Lander.