New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander says he was briefly detained by the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday while harvesting olives alongside Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank — an incident that has drawn sharp words from Israel's Foreign Ministry and urgent calls from US lawmakers for the release of the other Americans still being held.
Lander, a former New York City comptroller running for Congress in New York's 10th Congressional District, posted a photograph on social media showing himself in the back of a crowded bus, with two men in military uniforms visible near the front. "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," he wrote. "The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn't a crime under any law I know."
The incident took place near the Palestinian village of Nahalin, south of Bethlehem, where around 80 volunteers — Americans, Israelis, and, according to one organizer, British and Canadian citizens — were taking part in the annual olive harvest alongside Palestinian farmers. The effort was organized by the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights and the North American Jewish organization T'ruah, in what is known as "protective presence": international volunteers accompanying farmers who often face violence from Israeli settlers during the harvest season. Among those detained were 12 rabbis, a Palestinian family, and reportedly former Israeli deputy attorney general Joshua Schoffman.
According to the organizers, the group had been peacefully harvesting for about two hours when Israeli soldiers and police arrived and declared the area a closed military zone. Rabbis for Human Rights acting director Anton Goodman told Reuters the volunteers had not known the area was restricted and offered to leave — but were detained anyway. The volunteers were separated by nationality and transported to a police station. Lander said he was held for about three hours, while other participants were detained for around nine. Israeli police later said 72 people had been released, some on condition they stay away from the harvest area, and that four foreign nationals would face a hearing on Thursday over possible deportation.
Lander said he was released with a warning, which he attributed to his public profile. "I told them I wasn't even a congressmember yet, just a nominee," he wrote on social media after his release. But several dozen rabbis and volunteers who were harvesting olives with him remained in detention at that point, he said, calling for their release. In a video recorded before the incident, Lander said: "The Palestinians whose land this is have a right to harvest it in peace."
Israel's Foreign Ministry pushed back hard, calling Lander's actions "political provocation." The ministry said he had chosen to enter a restricted area and take part in an unauthorized activity without coordinating with local authorities. "What makes this stunt even more outrageous is that his own team contacted Israeli representatives in the United States ahead of his visit and was explicitly informed that proper coordination with the relevant authorities was required. He chose to ignore those instructions," the ministry said.
Lander disputed that account. He said his team understood it was generally advised to coordinate with relevant authorities but that he was not required to seek permission in this instance — and that the area his group was in was not restricted when they arrived. The military, he said, restricted the zone only after they had entered it.
The detentions drew a swift response in the United States. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has backed Lander's congressional bid, said several other New Yorkers remained in custody and "must be released immediately." "The detention of these New Yorkers must end. The occupation must end," Mamdani wrote on social media. Rep. Nanette Barragan, a California Democrat, said she was relieved at Lander's release but called for the immediate release of the other detained Americans. "Peacefully helping Palestinian families harvest their land is not a crime. It should not lead to an arrest," Barragan said in a statement, adding: "The rights and safety of Palestinians, as well as of those that stand alongside them, must be respected." Lander was not the only foreign figure caught up in the harvest clashes — European diplomats were attacked by settlers near Taybeh.
Who is Brad Lander? Lander is one of the most closely watched progressive candidates of the November 3 midterm cycle. The former New York City comptroller scored an upset victory in the June Democratic primary, defeating incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman and mounting his challenge from the left. Lander, who is Jewish, has been an outspoken critic of Israel throughout his career: he has opposed unconditional US military aid to Israel and said he believes Israel's conduct in Gaza meets the definition of genocide. His West Bank trip was organized to draw attention to what critics describe as a recent spate of settler violence against Palestinian farmers — a theme he has made central to his campaign.
The episode lands at a moment of unusual tension in the US-Israel relationship, just days before Americans vote in the midterm elections, and follows other recent flashpoints in the bilateral relationship. It also comes just days before Israel's own October 27 Knesset election — a contest in which Donald Trump has given his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to Benjamin Netanyahu. For Lander, the detention is likely to become a defining moment of his campaign — a vivid illustration of the foreign-policy stance that carried him past an incumbent in June, and a test of how far Democratic primary voters' appetite for confrontation with Israel extends into the general election.
What happens next: the four foreign nationals flagged by Israeli police face a deportation hearing on Thursday. US lawmakers are pressing for the remaining detained Americans to be freed. And Lander, back on the campaign trail with less than two weeks until Election Day, will almost certainly keep the story front and center — the bus photograph, the grove near Nahalin, and the warning he says he was given for being, in his words, not yet a congressmember but just a nominee.
Sources: WSJ, Reuters, BBC, The Guardian, NY Post, Fox News, Rabbis for Human Rights, T'ruah, Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli police, Rep. Nanette Barragan, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander (X).