New York congressional nominee Brad Lander released after West Bank detention while helping Palestinian farmers

NPR reported on Oct. 21 that Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for a New York House seat and a former New York City comptroller, was detained in the occupied West Bank along with about 80 American and Israeli rabbis and activists who were helping Palestinians harvest olives from their grove near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit. NPR placed the harvest in Nahalin. Anadolu Agency, citing the Palestinian activist Amira Muslim, said 45 foreign activists, including Lander, and 25 Israeli activists were held, and gave the location as the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem. The two outlets gave different counts and locations.

NPR said Lander later wrote on social media that he had been released from custody, which he presumed was because of his “public profile,” and that several dozen others were still detained as of its report, updated at 11:07 a.m. ET. Anadolu’s earlier report said no information was immediately available on whether any of those held had been released.

In a video filmed from the bus the group was put on, Lander said, “Harvesting olives is not a crime under any law,” NPR reported. NPR said American rabbis from T’ruah, a U.S. organization, the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights and other activists had joined Palestinian families at the grove in what T’ruah called Protect the Harvest, an effort to accompany Palestinian harvesters. T’ruah said a Palestinian family was also detained, according to NPR.

Two Israeli lawyers who work on related cases told NPR it was the largest mass detention of activists in the occupied West Bank in at least a decade. NPR said it came amid a rise in settler violence against Palestinian farmers, and that several Palestinians told it they had been unable to harvest their trees there since Oct. 7, 2023. NPR described Lander as an ally of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won the Democratic primary for a New York House district in June.