New York Democratic candidate released after being detained in West Bank

New York Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander said he had been released after being detained Wednesday by the Israeli army while participating in an olive harvest in the occupied West Bank. “I’ve been released from IDF custody with a 'warning,' apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee),” Lander wrote Wednesday in a post on X, referring to the Israel Defense Forces, after he said on the platform that he was was among several rabbis and volunteers who were detained by the Israeli military. He said some in his group were still being detained. The former New York City comptroller, who is Jewish and a political ally of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had said he was traveling to the region with the “Protect the Harvest” coalition. The international organization mobilizes volunteers to the occupied West Bank to support Palestinians during their annual olive harvest — a bedrock of Palestinian life and culture. “But several dozen rabbis & participants harvesting olives with me are still in detention,” Lander wrote. “For harvesting olives. They should all be released immediately.” Lander, his campaign and the Israeli army did not immediately return MS NOW’s requests for comment Wednesday. The Israeli organization Rabbis for Human Rights, which describes itself as “the only rabbinic organization in Israel explicitly dedicated to human rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories,” said Wednesday that Lander was detained for “for standing with Palestinians during the olive harvest.” In a statement to Reuters, the group said Lander was part of a group of volunteers accompanying Palestinian harvesters in a village just outside Bethlehem when Israeli forces arrived and detained the group. The military and the Israel Police told the volunteers they were in a closed military zone, which Rabbis for Human Rights said they had no means of knowing. The military said that it, along with authorities from the Judea and Samaria regions, detained a “number of” Palestinian harvesters and “dozens of people” accompanying them because they failed to submit an “an advance request to the relevant authorities before the start of the harvest season.” “Coordinating the harvest is required in order to ensure the maintenance of security in the area and public order,” the military said in the statement. In a post announcing his release, Lander said: “To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day. These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes. Yet one more element of escalating, and very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.” The incident comes as violence from Israeli settlers toward Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is on the rise ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 elections. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was injured last week while documenting an attack by a group of masked Israeli settlers on Palestinians who had gathered to harvest olives near the village of Abu Falah. The next day, settlers attacked European diplomats. The Israel Police said last week that it had arrested 10 people suspected of participating in the violent attacks. Lander edged out incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the Democratic primary for New York’s deep-blue 10th Congressional District, which spans lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. The two men sparred over their views on Israel during that race, with Lander focusing on his opposition to U.S. military aid for Israel. Mamdani — who drew the ire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he called on the federal government to pursue his arrest — buoyed Lander’s campaign with an early endorsement. Netanyahu is running for re-election next week in the country’s first election since the brutal Hamas attack in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Israel-Hamas war. He has compared Mamdani to the leaders of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah on campaign billboards across Israel. On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu for re-election. Trump praised the Israeli prime minister as a “great warrior prime minister” and bastion of peace.