Israeli forces detained Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, on Wednesday while he helped Palestinian farmers harvest olives near Nahalin in the occupied West Bank, then released him after about three hours while dozens of American and Israeli volunteers stayed in police custody.
Lander, the former New York City comptroller, had been in the West Bank since Monday with the Protect the Harvest coalition, which organizes international volunteers to accompany Palestinian growers during a season marked by settler violence. He posted on social media that he was taken off the grove with rabbis and other participants, loaded onto a bus, and held at a station in the Beitar Illit area.
What Israel said — and what activists dispute
Israel Police said the harvest had not been coordinated with military authorities and that entry without approval required detention. The Israel Defense Forces said farmers and volunteers failed to seek the permits the army requires in parts of the territory.
Lander told U.S. media he was on private Palestinian land without crossing a checkpoint. Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli group that helped organize the harvest, said Lander and others were accompanying farmers near Bethlehem before soldiers arrived. After reporters circulated a Civil Administration map suggesting the plot did not sit in a zone that required prior coordination, the military argued the area was omitted because Palestinians had never before asked to harvest there.
A congressional race already shaped by Gaza
Lander is heavily favored to win the deep-blue Manhattan-and-Brooklyn seat in two weeks after defeating incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in a primary dominated by Israel policy. Both men are Jewish; Lander has been more critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and has described the war in Gaza as a genocide, language Goldman rejected.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom Lander has supported, condemned the detention on social media. The episode lands days after high-profile settler attacks on journalists and European diplomats drew U.S. and European condemnation, including the assault on Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine.
Harvest season under pressure
The olive harvest is an annual flashpoint. United Nations monitors have documented hundreds of Palestinian injuries in settler attacks this year and dozens of killings in the West Bank since January. Israeli police said this week they arrested 10 people suspected of participating in violence against Palestinians and bystanders.
Lander said he received a “warning” upon release and attributed his quick exit to his public profile. He wrote that he told officers he was a nominee, not yet a member of Congress, and called for the release of those still held. NBC News and The Associated Press said the IDF did not immediately respond to requests for comment when detentions were first reported.
For U.S. Democrats watching the NY-10 race, the detention adds a live foreign-policy test to a contest that was already a proxy fight over the Biden and Trump eras’ handling of Israel. For the volunteers still on the bus, the immediate question was simpler: whether they would be charged, deported, or sent back to the groves before the fruit spoils on the branch.