Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for a New York City congressional seat, said Wednesday he was briefly detained by the Israel Defense Forces while he was harvesting olives with other volunteers in the West Bank.
Lander, the former New York City comptroller and council member, joined rabbis and other volunteers to take part in Protect the Harvest, a non-profit that helps to harvest olives for Palestinian farmers in the West Bank, according to his campaign.
“There are Israelis and American Jews and people from all around the world trying to provide a protective presence as part of this broader effort,” Lander, who is Jewish and has been vocal of his support for Palestinians, said in a video posted by his campaign Tuesday night before the incident.
During the harvesting Wednesday, the group was stopped by armed military members and police in uniform and were placed on buses, according to Lander and other volunteers who filmed the incident.
“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank,” Lander wrote on social media where he shared a selfie on the bus taking the group away.
“The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know,” he added.
Later Wednesday, Lander posted an an update that the IDF released him from custody “with a ‘warning,’ apparently because of my public profile.”
“I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee,” Lander said in the post which included a video of him inside the bus with other activists.
Lander added that “several dozen rabbis & participants,” were still being detained when he was released.
Israeli authorities said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that most of the detained volunteers had been released.
The IDF released a statement that said, “Regarding reports of the detention of a congressional candidate, we note that he was released once the matter was brought to our attention.”
“The plot in question requires only a small number of harvesters to collect its produce. The security establishment views the arrival of dozens of activists as an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process,” the IDF added.
The group of volunteers, which included the non-profit Rabbis for Human Rights, have disputed allegations that they did not follow protocol with the authorities and said they were harvesting peacefully.
“We came to accompany farmers to land they have not been able to reach in three years, and after two hours of quiet harvesting large forces arrived and closed the area. No one could have known about this order in advance,” Anton Goodman, the acting executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said in a statement Wednesday.
“Instead of protecting people working their own land, the army is removing them from it, and detaining those who came to stand beside them,” he added.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry blasted Lander in a social media post Wednesday, calling the incident a “stunt.”
“His own team contacted Israeli representatives in the United States ahead of his visit and was explicitly informed that proper coordination with the relevant authorities was required. He chose to ignore those instructions,” the foreign ministry alleged.
The Lander campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Israeli foreign ministry’s statement.
Lander won the Democratic primary in June, beating U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents parts of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan that are heavily Democratic. Lander, who received endorsements from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other progressive Democrats, faces Republican nominee Jennifer Moore in the general election.
Mamdani released a statement Wednesday criticizing the Israeli government for detaining Lander and the other activists, some of whom are new Yorkers, according to the mayor.
“I am thankful that Brad has been released. But other New Yorkers remain detained, and they must be released immediately,” Mamdani said in a statement.
In a response to an inquiry from ABC News, a State Department spokesman said the department was “aware of reports of Americans detained in the West Bank.”
“The Trump Administration takes its commitment to assist Americans abroad seriously and we are tracking the situation,” the spokesman said.
“When Americans are detained abroad, the Department works on their behalf to obtain access to adequate medical care, proper treatment, and consular visits,” he added.
-ABC News’ Jared Kofsky and Othon Leyva contributed to this report.
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