Brad Lander held with dozens of olive harvest volunteers near Beitar Illit

Israeli security forces on Wednesday detained Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for a US congressional seat and a former New York City comptroller, together with a group of volunteers and activists who had gone with Palestinian farmers to pick olives in the West Bank. Ynet reported that the incident took place in the Bethlehem area, on land near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit that requires advance coordination, and that Lander was later freed with a warning.

Reports differ on the size of the group. Ynet put it at about 80 American volunteers and activists, while The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom both gave a figure of 90. Israel Hayom, citing Reuters, said the group was helping Palestinian farmers bring in their olive crop when it was stopped. Haaretz attributed the initial account of the detentions to an Israeli rights group.

What the military and police said

In a statement issued later in the day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said several harvesters, joined by dozens of other people, had come to pick olives without coordination near Beitar Illit. According to the military, farming in that area depends on a request lodged with the relevant authorities before the season begins, a step it described as needed for security and public order.

The military said that because of what it called the security risk of an uncoordinated harvest close to an Israeli community, soldiers, Border Police officers from the Judea and Samaria command and officers from the Judea and Samaria police district went to the site and detained those present. Judea and Samaria is the term Israeli authorities use for the West Bank. As carried by N12, the statement added that the landowner was told he must coordinate any harvest on his plot and was given contact details for doing so.

Israel Police gave its own account, according to N12: everyone involved was detained and brought to a police station, and once officers learned at the facility that one of the foreign activists was a congressional candidate, he was let go. The police statement as reported does not say what happened to the others.

Lander's response

After his release, Lander condemned the detention. Ynet reported that he called the occupation a crime under international law and said that picking olives is not one. Israel Hayom noted, citing Reuters, that Lander has been a strong critic of the war in Gaza.

Where this happened

Beitar Illit is a large Israeli settlement in the West Bank, located south-west of Jerusalem and not far from Bethlehem, with Palestinian villages around it. A photograph published by The Jerusalem Post, credited to the group Rabbis for Human Rights, was captioned as showing IDF forces detaining that organisation's volunteers in the village of Nehalim.

Rabbis for Human Rights is an Israeli organisation whose members and volunteers regularly accompany Palestinian farmers to their land during the autumn olive harvest. The reports reviewed here do not name the rights group that first publicised the detentions, though the photo credit links the volunteers to that organisation.

The harvest and the coordination system

For many Palestinian families in the West Bank, the olive harvest is a central source of income and a long tradition. In areas close to Israeli settlements, the military runs a coordination system under which access to certain plots is permitted only on approved dates. Israeli authorities describe this as a security measure; Palestinian farmers and the activist groups who accompany them have long argued that it restricts access to their own land. The IDF statement on Wednesday framed the incident entirely in terms of the absence of prior coordination.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not agree on how many people were detained, with figures of about 80 and 90 both cited. None of them states how many of the detainees were Palestinian farmers and how many were foreign or Israeli volunteers, whether the others held alongside Lander were also released, or whether anyone faces charges. The police account says Lander was freed after his candidacy became known, but no report explains what the warning given to him involved or whether his treatment differed from that of the rest of the group. The reports also do not identify the landowner or say whether a coordinated harvest on the plot has since been arranged.