US Congressional Candidate Detained During West Bank Olive Harvest
Democratic candidate Brad Lander was released from Israeli military custody Wednesday after being detained alongside roughly 80 activists. The group had been assisting Palestinian farmers with their olive harvest near an Israeli settlement, an incident lawyers described as the largest mass detention of activists in the region in a decade.
Lander, a nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, reported that while he was released with a warning due to his public profile, dozens of rabbis and volunteers remained in detention. He characterized the action as an attempt to obstruct Palestinians from accessing their ancestral groves and homes. "To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day," Lander wrote on social media following his release.
The incident highlights a growing pattern of volatility during the harvest season. Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, criticized the Israeli government for targeting volunteers rather than the individuals responsible for documented attacks on farmers. Amnesty International recently described the current environment as a "season of horror," with regional director Heba Morayef calling on international states to move beyond rhetoric and address what she termed a central policy of state-sanctioned settler violence.
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