ISRAELI FORCES RELEASE BRAD LANDER AFTER WEST BANK DETENTION

Israeli soldiers and police detained US congressional candidate Brad Lander and volunteers helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives near Nahalin in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to Rabbis for Human Rights. Lander said Israeli military authorities later released him with a warning. He wrote on X that he believed his public profile explained his release. Lander said several dozen people, including rabbis, remained in custody. He called for their immediate release.

Rabbis for Human Rights put the number initially detained at approximately 80. Nahalin lies outside Bethlehem. The volunteers included Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, Britons and Canadians. Becca Strober of the Protect the Harvest Coalition said the group had picked olives at a Palestinian family’s invitation for several hours. Strober said soldiers checked volunteers’ identification documents, declared the area a closed military zone and moved the detainees from the field to a police station.

Lander is the Democratic Party nominee for New York’s 10th congressional district and previously served as New York City comptroller. He describes himself as a liberal Zionist Jew and has criticised the Israeli government. “Palestinians face far worse consequences every day,” he wrote on X, arguing that the detentions impeded their access to olive groves, roads and homes. He called the detentions “one more element of escalating, and very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing”. Lander said he would provide updates on the remaining detainees when he received information.