New York congressional candidate Brad Lander says he was detained by IDF in occupied West Bank

Congressional candidate Brad Lander said in a post on X on Wednesday that he was arrested in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli Defense Forces while participating in an olive harvest.

“I was arrested by the IDF, with a group of rabbis and volunteers,” Lander said in his post, sharing a photo of himself on a bus.

“We were just harvesting olives in a grove” in the West Bank, he continued. “Occupation is a crime under international law. Olive harvesting is not a crime under any law that I know of.”

NBC News has reached out to Lander and his campaign for further information and comment. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lander, a former New York City comptroller, is running for Congress in New York’s 10th Congressional District, a deep blue Democratic stronghold. He previously said he was traveling to the occupied West Bank with the Protect the Harvest coalition, which he said was “bringing together people from around the world to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the face of state-sanctioned settler terrorism.”

“Our goals for this trip are to help protect the olive harvest and shed light on the reality of the occupation,” he said in a message to X on Monday.

Last week saw two high-profile Israeli settler attacks, including one in which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was injured, and another that targeted European diplomats. Earlier this week, Israeli police said they had arrested 10 people suspected of taking part in violence against Palestinians and others.

More than 900 Palestinians have been injured in settler attacks since the start of the year, according to a July United Nations report. The same report indicates that 76 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers or died from their injuries since the start of the year.

Lander ousted incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District primary, which was dominated by the candidates’ views toward Israel. Both men are Jewish, and Lander has been more critical of the Israeli government and the war in Gaza, which he has called a “genocide.”