Israeli forces detained Brad Lander, a Democratic candidate for Congress from New York, as he took part in a West Bank olive harvest with Palestinian farmers who have faced increasing threats from radical Jewish settlers.
Lander said in a post on X that he had been detained by the Israel Defense Forces with a group of rabbis and other volunteers. In a video posted on X by the Haaretz newspaper, Lander said he and dozens of activists were being taken away by the military on a bus. “We’ll see what happens,” he said. “We came because we believe Palestinians have a right to harvest that olive field.”
Police said it took 10 suspected assailants into custody.
Another activist who appears in the post by Haaretz said the bus was headed to a police station. The fall olive harvest is often a flashpoint between Palestinians and Israeli settlers who have been expanding their hold on occupied land with the encouragement of far-rightists in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. Israel’s West Bank policy has been under increased foreign scrutiny after an American photojournalist and a group of European diplomats were attacked by settlers over the weekend.
