Dem candidate seized by Israeli forces while harvesting olives with Palestinians

Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander was detained by Israeli troops in the West Bank while helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives, an Israeli rights group said.

Lander, the former New York City comptroller, announced his detention Wednesday in a post on X that included a selfie taken aboard a bus.

About 90 volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli group, were detained near Nahalin, a village outside Bethlehem, the Jerusalem Post reported. A source told the Post that Lander was later released with a warning.

“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank,” Lander wrote. “The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”

Lander won the Democratic nomination for New York’s 10th Congressional District in June, defeating Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), PoliticsNY reported. He faces Republican Jennifer Moore in November, according to News 12.

In a video posted by the group Israelis for Peace, Lander said, “They’ve just told us that all of the non-Israelis, all of the internationals who have been harvesting today, are gonna get on that bus. That is to say, we’re being arrested by the Israeli military for harvesting olives.”

“We were not causing any problem or making any threats to anyone,” he said. “[Palestinians] haven’t harvested it since Oct. 7 because they’re afraid Israeli settlers will come and beat them or burn their olive trees.”

Anton Goodman, acting executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said in a statement quoted by the Post, “We came to accompany farmers to land they had been unable to access for three years, and after two hours of peaceful olive harvesting, large numbers of troops arrived and closed off the area.”

“Instead of protecting people working their land, the army is keeping them away from it and detaining those who came to accompany them for identification,” Goodman said.

Troops declared the field a closed military zone, an area off-limits to civilians, the Post reported. Activists told the outlet they agreed to go but were detained anyway.

Palestinian olive pickers were detained along with the activists, the Times of Israel reported, citing Palestinian media.

Police took the foreign volunteers to a regional military headquarters for questioning, a source told the Post. One detainee told the outlet that no one was harmed. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of the rabbinic human rights group T’ruah, and former Israeli Deputy Attorney General Yehoshua Schoffman were among those detained, the Post reported.

Jacobs said in a statement that the military “forcibly removed those who came to provide a protective presence.”

Gilad Kariv, a member of Israel’s parliament from the Democrats party, said that the group "did not break any laws or violate any lawful orders, nor did they confront anyone.”

Israeli authorities are inclined to deport the foreign activists, a source told the Post.