Brad Lander, New York City's former comptroller and the Democratic nominee for New York's 10th Congressional District, was detained Wednesday by Israeli forces while helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the occupied West Bank.
He was released later that morning, while dozens of other volunteers remained in custody, according to accounts from Gothamist.
Lander, who defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman in the June Democratic primary, announced his release shortly before 10a.m. Wednesday in a post on X.
Israeli forces detained Lander alongside rabbis and other volunteers harvesting olives near Nahalin, a Palestinian village southwest of Bethlehem, according to Lander and Rabbis for Human Rights, an organization that helped coordinate theeffort.
"The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn't a crime under any law I know," Lander wrote before announcing his release.
He later said authorities released him with a warning, apparently because of his public profile. Several dozen other participants remained detained, he added, and should be released immediately.
About 70 Israeli and international volunteers arrived in Nahalin on Wednesday morning to help Palestinian farmers reach olive groves they had been unable to access for three years, according to Anton Goodman, acting director of Rabbis for Human Rights.
The group included about 15 rabbis from different Jewish denominations, Goodman said.
Goodman, an Orthodox Jew, described the harvest as both an effort to support Palestinian farmers and an expression of Jewish identity.
He was detained alongside Lander and spoke to Gothamist by phone from an Israeli police station in the West Bank.
The groves sat several hundred meters from an Israeli settlement, according to Goodman.
After about 90 minutes, Israeli police, soldiers and other security forces approached the volunteers and declared the area a closed military zone, Goodman said.
Lander also drew national attention earlier this year when federal immigration agents detained him during an immigration court check-in in Manhattan as he accompanied a migrant seeking legal assistance.
He criticized the detention and said he was trying to protect the migrant's rights.
Lander faces Republican nominee Jennifer Moore in the Nov. 3 election for New York's 10th Congressional District, which covers parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.
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