Updated October 21, 2026 at 6:49 PM EDT
NAHALIN, West Bank — U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was detained by Israeli security forces along with dozens of American and Israeli rabbis and activists on Wednesday, as the U.S. and Israeli delegation was helping Palestinians harvest olives from their grove close to a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
An NPR team was the only U.S. media to witness the detentions.
Lander, a House nominee and former New York City comptroller, said he was released from Israeli military custody "with a warning," but others initially remained detained.
By Wednesday night, one of the campaign sponsors, the New Israel Fund, said approximately 90 volunteers of what they're calling the Protect the Harvest initiative were released.
It was the largest mass detention of activists in the occupied West Bank in at least a decade, two Israeli lawyers who work on related cases told NPR. Rabbi Arik Ascherman, a longtime Israeli human rights proponent, called the detentions "unprecedented."
The Israeli military said in a statement that harvesting in the area requires the farmers to submit requests to the authorities before the olive harvest season in order to coordinate "security of the area and maintain public order." The military said Palestinians in this area did not submit a request, so soldiers and police arrived and detained those present.
"Regarding reports of the detention of a congressional candidate, we note that he was released once the matter was brought to our attention," the Israeli military told NPR.
Lander denounced the Israeli authorities' actions. He told his followers on social media, "Occupation is a crime under international law," but harvesting olives is not.
"We were on private Palestinian land. We were with the farmers whose land it is. There's no obligation to coordinate with the Israeli military," Lander told NPR and WBUR's Here & Now. "This was the IDF making it impossible for these poor Palestinian farmers to harvest their olive trees," he added, using the initials for the Israeli military.
Rabbis from the U.S. organization T'ruah, the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights and other activists had joined Palestinian families in picking olives at their grove in Nahalin, close to the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit. They said they formed an international coalition of volunteers to accompany Palestinian harvesters at a time when they and their property have come under attack from Israeli settlers.
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Olive harvesting is an important time for Palestinians both culturally and economically. But it has become increasingly hard for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to access their fields. Several Palestinians there told NPR they have been unable to harvest their olive trees there since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, saying it had become too dangerous in the face of rising settler attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Fahimeh, 77, was picking olives from her trees on land that she said has been in her family for generations. She didn't give her last name and said her nephews were too afraid to come because of the threat of settler attacks. She said she hoped the presence of dozens of U.S. and Israeli volunteers would help keep her safe.
"For three years we have not harvested any olives," she told NPR. "I am so happy that I'm surrounded with all these people who are helping me."
Among the volunteers was Lander, who has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli government.
"What's going on here cries out for attention. I feel that profoundly as an American Jew, and as someone who's headed into the next Congress. My constituents don't want their tax dollars paying for this," Lander told NPR's team reporting in the West Bank, before he was detained.
After roughly two hours, drones began circling overhead and Israeli security forces arrived and declared the area a closed military zone. They detained the American and Israeli activists — including Lander as well as a former Israeli deputy attorney general — along with Palestinian harvesters such as Fahimeh, and took them to a police station for questioning.
The detentions come less than a week after American photojournalist Heidi Levine was assaulted by Israeli settlers while she was on assignment for The Washington Post in the West Bank, the latest journalist to come under attack during the Palestinian olive harvest season. Democratic congressman Ro Khanna of California was also briefly detained by Israeli forces while visiting the West Bank in July.
T'ruah, the U.S. rabbinical human rights group, said the international coalition was hoping its presence would help Palestinian farmers harvest in peace.
"Let us be clear about what happened here: Rather than protecting Palestinian farmers and ensuring their right to work their own land, the Israeli military forcibly removed those who came to provide a protective presence," T'ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs said in a statement. "This is an outrageous abuse of power, and part of a systematic, state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at driving Palestinians from their land," she said.
Lander, an ally of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won the Democratic primary for a New York House district in June, agreed with that.
"When we say state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing, it's not just settler violence. It's the IDF's effort to prevent Palestinians from living their lives," Lander told Here & Now after his release.
Israeli authorities have rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing. Israel's Foreign Ministry accused Lander of a political "stunt," saying he was there looking for a confrontation.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs in New York, said 33 of those who were detained are U.S. citizens. She wrote on social media that she was in contact with some of them, who were accused of "disturbing the peace."
The State Department told NPR it is aware of reports of Americans detained in the West Bank and is tracking the situation, but said it would not comment further due to privacy and other considerations.
Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, where Itay Stern also contributed reporting. Alex Leff, Michele Kelemen and Luke Garrett contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.
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