Some 90 Rabbis for Human Rights volunteers were arrested by the Israeli army in the West Bank on Wednesday, including congressional candidate Brad Lander (D-NY) and former deputy attorney general Yehoshua Schoffman, sources said. The Jerusalem Post.
Police took the foreign volunteers to the Etzion regional brigade headquarters for questioning, a source there said. Job. Sources added that no one was injured in the incident.
Authorities are inclined to expel foreign activists, the source added. Lander was specifically released with a warning, Israeli police confirmed.
Rabbis for Human Rights said the volunteers worked in the village of Nehalim, near Bethlehem, accompanying Palestinian farmers into groves during the olive harvest. According to the left-wing activist group, Palestinian farmers in the area had not been able to access the groves for three years. Authorities say olive harvesting in the region is prohibited without coordination with security services.
The IDF arrived two hours after the volunteers began work and declared the land a closed military zone. Activists told the Job that they had obeyed military orders and agreed to leave the area, but were still detained.
In a statement hours after the incident, the Israeli military said the militants had not submitted a harvest request before the olive season.
“Due to the security risk posed by conducting an uncoordinated harvest near an Israeli community, IDF soldiers, Judea and Samaria Border Police forces, and Judea and Samaria District Police officers arrived at the scene and arrested those present,” the Israeli military said.
“The landowner has been informed that he needs to coordinate the harvest of olives on his land and has been provided with the necessary contact details to arrange a harvest at a later date. In areas designated for a coordinated harvest, only pickers will be allowed entry, for harvesting purposes only.”
Human rights rabbis arrested in West Bank
Lander wrote that he was “simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank.”
“The occupation is a crime under international law. The olive harvest is not a crime under any law that I know of,” he added.
Schoffman posted a message on X/Twitter while he was detained, and noted that there had been no confrontations with the soldiers or with extremist settlers in the area.
Leaders of Rabbis for Human Rights said their work in the West Bank was peaceful and that the organization’s policy was to comply with IDF orders.
“We came to accompany the farmers to land they had not been able to access for three years, and after two hours of peacefully harvesting olives, a large number of soldiers arrived and cordoned off the area. No one could have known about this order in advance. Instead of protecting the people who work their land, the army is keeping them apart and arresting those who came with them for identification,” said Anton Goodman, interim executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights.
The IDF’s Arab Spokesperson’s Unit said in response that it “will not allow inciting elements to exploit civilian activity to provoke violence or create unrest. The olive harvest season is an agricultural activity; it must not be transformed into a period of violence and conflict.”
Left-wing Jewish organizations denounce detention of activists helping Palestinian farmers
In response to reports that Israeli authorities are inclined to expel foreign activists, Democratic MK and Rabbi Gilad Kariv called on Jewish organizations in Israel and the diaspora to intervene.
“According to information available to us, the police and the army are seeking to expel the dozens of Jewish volunteers from North America who came today to participate in the olive harvest in Gush Etzion. Among this group are prominent and influential rabbis, community leaders and public figures,” he wrote in an article on X/Twitter.
“They did not break any laws or violate any legal orders, and did not confront anyone. Their expulsion, if carried out, would cause enormous damage to Israel’s reputation among the Jewish and general public in the United States.
“I call on the leaders of the Jewish Agency, the leaders of Jewish organizations in the United States and the leaders of AIPAC to intervene in this madness. I expect nothing from Ben-Gvir, Katz or Netanyahu, but it is time for us to stand up against the terrible damage they are causing to the Jewish world and to Israel’s reputation on the international stage.”
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, was among those arrested. In a statement, she criticized the Israeli army, saying that “rather than protecting Palestinian farmers and guaranteeing their right to work on their own land, the Israeli army forcibly expelled those who came to provide a protective presence.”
“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 added.
“The Israeli government actively promotes the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank, using its military to deny Palestinians access to their land and intimidate those who stand with them. As rabbis, we have a moral obligation to confront these injustices, especially when they are perpetrated in our name.
In a joint statement, the Reform Movement in Israel and the Council of Reform Rabbis in Israel called the incident appalling.
“It is inconceivable that instead of arresting and prosecuting Jewish extremists who engage in theft and violence, security forces are arresting militant rabbis who are acting in accordance with Jewish values of loving humanity and pursuing justice,” said Anna Kislanski, executive director of the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism.
“This is a loss of moral control that tarnishes not only the State of Israel but also its relations with the Jewish community in the Diaspora. We call for the immediate release of all those detained and for decisive action against Jewish extremists who, in fact, break the law on a daily basis. »
Israeli security forces arrest Rabbis for Human Rights volunteers in the West Bank village of Nahalin on October 21, 2026 (COURTESY OF RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS).
In a video released before his arrest, Lander said Palestinians have the right to peacefully harvest crops on their land and that it is a commandment of Judaism to help those in need.
Why did left-wing activists help with the olive harvest?
On Tuesday, Lander, the former New York City comptroller, posted a video announcing he was volunteering in the West Bank with the organization.
“Our goals for this trip are to help protect the olive harvest – and to shine a light on the reality of occupation. Ensuring that international solidarity extends beyond the harvest, to become an enduring commitment to protecting Palestinian communities from settler violence, forced displacement and constant threats to their right to remain on their land,” he wrote.
“Fortunately, our harvest spot today was peaceful and successful. But unfortunately, violence is never far away.”
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