Israel detains US congressional candidate at West Bank olive harvest
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israeli forces on Wednesday briefly detained a US congressional candidate as he joined activists supporting Palestinians harvesting olives in the face of threats by extremist settlers.
Brad Lander, a left-wing Democrat who is expected to easily win a House seat in New York City on November 3, posted on social media that he was detained along with a group of rabbis and volunteers as they harvested olives west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
"The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn't a crime under any law I know," Lander wrote on X.
He later wrote that he was released on account of his prominence, adding that "Palestinians face far worse consequences every day".
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Israel has faced growing international criticism over violence during the harvest, with rights groups documenting multiple attacks and other disruptions each day by settlers against Palestinians.
Israel on Monday announced it had made several arrests after settlers beat up a US photojournalist covering the incidents and a French mayor who had come for the olive season.
The violence comes in the final days before Israeli elections in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to shore up his right-wing base, which is staunchly pro-settlement.
Israel has come under growing fire within the United States, traditionally its top ally.
Lander, who is Jewish, is a close ally of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israeli policies.
In a party primary in June, Lander ousted the sitting congressman, Dan Goldman, one of a dwindling number of Democrats who support Israel.
2 replies
I just heard Landers talk about it when he was released from an IDF facility in the West Bank. He called Ryan Grim on breaking points and they had him talk about what happened.
He said about 60 people were part of the group. The group, Protect the Harvest, has nearly 30 American members, with many of the members being American Rabbis part of a group called Rabbis for Peace. They are all still detained, or were as of his call, including the other international volunteers and the Palestinians whose olive farm they were helping to harvest. The Palestinians were split up from the group and brought somewhere else, including the owner of the farm.
The farm was right next to a modern settlement, he said it only took about an hour of harvesting before a security truck from the settlement spotted them and the IDF picked them up next.
This was the second harvest they had been engaged in either that day or this week.
https://youtu.be/kwv-pnxquSI?t=736&is=
Here's a link to the call, it starts at around 12:16.
Reminder: Brad Lander is a self described Zionist who opposes (unless it has changed recently) BDS, and made sure as comptroller to invest pension funds in Israeli companies such as Elbit Systems.
If Brad Lander wanted to be helpful to the Palestinian people, he could've started a long time ago by not investing in the companies killing them.
Until his attitude towards the Israeli state as a whole, and as a project changes, I'm not convinced of anything he says or does.