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Brad Lander says he's released after Israeli forces detained him during olive harvest
By
Ryan Kost
Published Oct 21, 2026 at 8:24 a.m. ET
Modified Oct 21, 2026 at 9:54 a.m. ET
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By
Ryan Kost
Published Oct 21, 2026 at 8:24 a.m. ET
Modified Oct 21, 2026 at 9:54 a.m. ET
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Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller and current Democratic nominee for the state’s 10th Congressional District, said Wednesday he’d been detained by Israeli forces while he was helping Palestinian farmers pick olives in the occupied West Bank.
He announced he'd been released just before 10 a.m. Wednesday.
In a post on X, Lander said Israeli forces had detained him along with a group of rabbis and volunteers who had been harvesting olives near the village of Nahalin, outside Bethlehem.
“The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know,” he wrote.
In a follow-up post three hours later, Lander said he was released with a warning “apparently because of my public profile.” He added that several dozen other participants were still being detained and “should all be released immediately.”
Rabbis for Human Rights was among the groups that helped organize the olive harvest. Acting Director Anton Goodman said he was detained alongside Lander Wednesday morning. He spoke to Gothamist by phone and said he was still being held at an Israeli police station in the West Bank.
Goodman said the group of about 70 Israeli and international volunteers arrived Wednesday morning to work in Nahalin, a Palestinian village southwest of Bethlehem. They hoped to harvest olive groves that Palestinian farmers hadn’t been able to access for three years, he said.
“This is a pastoral area,” Goodman said. “It's beautiful. It's ancient terracing. And on each level of the terraces are groups of olive trees that are owned by different families from the village.”
The area where they were working was a few hundred meters from an Israeli settlement, Goodman said. The volunteers went plot by plot, bagging olives to take back to the village. Only a small number of Palestinians joined them because, Goodman said. “The majority were scared to be there.”
After about an hour-and-a-half, he said, a large group of “Israeli security forces, police, army” approached the group and said the area had been designated a closed military zone that morning.
“I said to them, ‘We will respect it and we will leave.’ And they said, ‘No, we’re going to detain you all,’” Goodman said.
Goodman, who described himself as an Orthodox Jew, said about 15 rabbis from across denominations were in the group.
“The work that we were doing is a work of Jewish identity as well,” he said.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and former City Hall spokesperson, wrote on X that she was in touch with friends who were among 33 American citizens being held as of Wednesday morning. She said the group included “many rabbis and a soon-to-be-congressman” and that she was waiting for updates.
Lander, a close ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, unseated Rep. Dan Goldman in the June Democratic primary and is expected to win in the 10th, which encompasses parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. Israel was a major issue on the campaign trail. Lander has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
He announced earlier in the week that he was in the West Bank with the “Protect the Harvest” coalition. He said the group was helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the face of “state-sanctioned settler terrorism” and drawing attention to the occupation.
Rabbis for Human Rights also posted images of Lander’s apparent arrest.
The trip comes as settler attacks during this year’s harvest have drawn international condemnation. Last week, settlers attacked a Washington Post photojournalist, and the following day they attacked a delegation of European diplomats.
Neither the State Department nor the Israel Defense Forces immediately responded to a request for comment.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
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brad lander
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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