Soldiers separated volunteers by nationality before driving them to police station
Joshua Schoffman, who served as Israel’s deputy attorney general for more than a decade, described the mass detention as a “complete hallucination” in a social media post. He wrote: “Just now, they told me that I’m being detained for the crime of olive harvesting. We were asked to stop, and everyone complied. There was no friction whatsoever with settlers or with the security forces.”
The Guardian reported that Israeli soldiers detained about 80 U.S., Israeli and British volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Soldiers said the area had been declared a closed military zone. They separated the group by nationality and drove them to a nearby police station in minibuses for the Israelis and a larger bus for the Americans.
Protect the Harvest said Wednesday’s olive-picking from trees outside the village of Nahalin was uneventful until a large contingent of Israeli security forces arrived. The organization stated: “All volunteers were peacefully harvesting on the private land of a Palestinian family who had invited them. For reasons that remain unclear, the Israeli army showed up and detained approximately 80 people who were present.”
New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander was among those detained, along with several rabbis and Schoffman. From the bus taking him to a police station, he posted: “I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis and volunteers.” He added: “We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nahalin in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”
Protect the Harvest said Lander was released with a warning but all the others were still being held. Those still detained included Jill Jacobs, chief executive of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and 11 other American rabbis affiliated with the group. The Guardian reported that the detainees had been given water but no food. The Israeli military and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Guardian described Lander as Jewish and an outspoken critic of the Israeli government. He describes himself as a liberal Zionist, saying he believes in the vision of Israel as a safe, Jewish home but argues that it cannot be a true democracy while it denies Palestinians their human rights and freedom.
A photograph by Eduardo Muñoz, credited to Reuters, showed Lander with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York in June. An ally of Mamdani, Lander’s critical approach to Israel was a key factor in his resounding primary victory against Dan Goldman, a prominent supporter of Israel, The Guardian reported.
Lander condemns Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, has supported the restriction of U.S. military aid to Israel and believes that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks amounts to genocide, The Guardian reported.
The Guardian reported that settler militants had engaged in what it called “extreme violence” against Palestinians attempting to harvest olives from their trees across the occupied West Bank and anyone accompanying them. The outlet described a “vicious assault” on a U.S. photojournalist and attacks on European diplomats and a French mayor over the weekend. Those attacks drew international condemnation and calls for the Israeli government to crack down on militants, the outlet said.
On Monday, Lander made his first post about his journey to Palestine. He wrote: “Our goals for the trip are to help protect the olive harvest – and to shed a light on the reality of the occupation.” He added: “Thankfully, our corner of today’s harvest was peaceful and successful. But violence unfortunately is never far away.”