Israeli security forces, including the army and police, declared a closed military zone around an olive grove and escorted activists and rabbis away from the area before arresting them near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the occupied West Bank.
Ruth Sherlock/NPR
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Ruth Sherlock/NPR
NAHALIN, West Bank — Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Brad Lander was arrested along with about 80 American and Israeli rabbis and activists detained by Israeli security forces while helping Palestinians harvest olives in their grove near a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Lander, the former New York City comptroller, later said on social media that he had been released by the Israeli military, but that several dozen other people were still detained.
It is the largest mass detention of activists in the occupied West Bank in at least a decade, two Israeli lawyers who work on related cases told NPR. Rabbi Arik Ascherman, a longtime Israeli human rights advocate, called the detentions “unprecedented.” This comes amid a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinian farmers in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said in a statement that harvesting in the area requires farmers to submit requests to authorities before the olive harvest season in order to coordinate “the security of the area and maintain public order.” The army said Palestinians in that area had not submitted applications, so soldiers and police arrived and arrested those present.
“Regarding reports of the detention of a congressional candidate, we note that he was released once the matter was brought to our attention,” the Israeli military told NPR.
“We were arrested by the Israeli army for harvesting olives, and let’s be clear: occupation is a crime under international law,” Lander said in a video he filmed from the bus the group was on to be taken to the police station. “The olive harvest is not a crime under any law.”
American rabbis from the American T’ruah Organization, the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights and other activists joined Palestinian families to pick olives from their orchard in Nahalin, near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit. They said they were participating in what they called Protect the Harvest, bringing together an international coalition of volunteers to accompany Palestinian harvesters at a time when they, as well as their farms and other assets, are under attack by Israeli settlers in the region.
Activists and rabbis from the United States and Israel help Palestinians harvest olives in Nahalin, near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the occupied West Bank.
Ruth Sherlock/NPR
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Ruth Sherlock/NPR
The olive harvest is an important time for Palestinians, both culturally and economically. But it has become increasingly difficult for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to access their fields. Several Palestinians told NPR that they have not been able to harvest their olive trees there since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, saying it had become too dangerous in the face of rising settler attacks in the occupied West Bank.
These arrests come less than a week after American photojournalist Heidi Levine, working for The Washington Post was attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the latest journalist to be attacked during the Palestinian olive harvest season. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California was also briefly detained by Israeli forces while visiting the West Bank in July.
On Wednesday, the group of Americans and Israelis joined Palestinian farmers in the hope that their presence would help them harvest in peace. T’ruah said the action was called Protect the Harvest.
After about two hours, drones began flying over the area and Israeli security forces arrived and declared the area a closed military zone. They arrested the Israeli and American activists and took them to the police station for questioning. The rabbinical human rights group T’ruah said a Palestinian family had also been arrested.
“Let’s be clear about what happened here: rather than protecting Palestinian farmers and ensuring their right to work on their own land, the Israeli military forcibly expelled those who had come to provide a protective presence,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said in a statement. “This is a scandalous abuse of power, part of a systematic state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at driving Palestinians from their lands,” she said.
Israeli authorities have rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing.
Lander, an ally of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won the Democratic primary in a New York House district in June, has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli government.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Lander of a political “set-up,” saying he was seeking a confrontation.
The State Department told NPR it was aware of reports of Americans being detained in the West Bank and was monitoring the situation, but said it would not comment further due to privacy and other considerations.
Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, where Itay Stern also contributed reporting.
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