Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York's 10th Congressional District, was detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday while helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives, according to the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights.
The group said around 80 volunteers, including American and Israeli citizens, were held on farmland near the village of Nahalin, outside Bethlehem, after accompanying the farmers for about two hours. Israeli authorities said the harvest had not been coordinated as required, but the volunteers were taken to a police station in the Beitar Illit settlement.
"Harvesting olives isn't a crime under any law I know," Lander, a former New York City comptroller and an ally of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, wrote on X. He was later released with a warning, which he said was apparently because of his public profile, and called for the others still in custody to be freed.
Lander, a critic of Israel's war in Gaza, is running in the November 3 US midterm elections.
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