Israeli forces detain US congressional candidate at West Bank olive harvest

Israeli forces detained Brad Lander, a Democratic candidate for the US Congress, in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, along with other Americans, Israelis and Palestinians taking part in the annual olive harvest, rights groups said, Dawn reported, citing Reuters.

The detentions took place in Nahalin, a village south of Bethlehem, where Palestinians were picking olives with around 80 volunteers, according to the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights and the Jewish North American organisation T’ruah.

“Harvesting olives isn’t a crime”

Lander, a Jewish American and former New York City comptroller, wrote on X that he had been detained with a group of rabbis and volunteers.

“We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nahalin in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know,” he wrote.

Lander, an ally of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a critic of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, is running for New York’s 10th Congressional District in the November 3 midterm elections. He was later released.

Over 30 Americans held

More than 30 US citizens, as well as British and Canadian citizens, were among those detained, said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, chief executive of T’ruah, who was herself held.

“We were obviously not doing anything violent but just the very act of picking olives together with Palestinian farmers was apparently disturbing for some,” said Jacobs, a 51-year-old rabbi from Manhattan.

Rabbis for Human Rights said Israeli soldiers and police arrived about two hours after the harvest began and told the group they were in a closed military zone. Its acting director, Anton Goodman, said the order had been issued only that morning. The group offered to leave, he said, “however, we were told that we cannot leave because we have been disturbing the public order”.

Lander was the only one released so far; the others were expected to be interrogated, Goodman said, speaking from a police station in the Beitar Illit settlement. “I would suggest to all activists go out there and get yourself elected,” he said.

What Israel says

• Police said they detained Palestinian harvesters and dozens of Israeli and foreign activists gathering olives near the fence of an Israeli settlement, saying this was prohibited. One foreign national was released once it became known he was a congressional candidate.
• The military said harvesting in that area required prior coordination, which had not taken place. It did not say harvesting there was banned.
• The US Embassy in Jerusalem said it was aware of reports that US citizens had been detained and was monitoring the situation.

A harvest under attack

The volunteers were providing what is known as a “protective presence” for Palestinian farmers, who often face violence from Israeli settlers during the harvest. Settler violence against Palestinians is surging, while the Israeli military continues to restrict Palestinians’ access to their own farmland.

Olives are the backbone of Palestinian agriculture, a sector worth around 8pc of GDP and more than 60,000 jobs, according to the Palestinian Authority’s agriculture ministry.

Last weekend, a Washington Post photojournalist was beaten by settlers while covering a harvest, and European diplomats and a French mayor were attacked at another. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio then called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to crack down on the violence, and Israeli police said on Monday they had made 10 arrests.

Israel’s control over Palestinian land extends well beyond the harvest, including the use of AI surveillance across the West Bank.