Israel detains about 80 volunteers, including Brad Lander, at West Bank olive harvest

Israeli military forces detained about 80 volunteers who were helping Palestinians harvest olives near Nahalin, a village in the West Bank, on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Among those held was Brad Lander, a New York Democratic congressional nominee, along with several rabbis and Joshua Schoffman, who served as Israel's deputy attorney general for more than a decade. The volunteers were from the United States, Israel and Britain.

Lander later posted from a bus taking him to a police station that he had been detained by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the country's military, along with a group of rabbis and volunteers while harvesting olives. He wrote that he was told "Just now" that he was being detained for the crime of olive harvesting. He also wrote that the occupation is a crime under international law, and that harvesting olives is not a crime under any law he knows.

The organisers, Protect the Harvest, said the volunteers were picking on private land belonging to a Palestinian family who had invited them. They said the army detained about 80 people who were present, for reasons that remained unclear. According to the group, Lander was released with a warning while the other detainees were still being held. The Guardian reported that the volunteers were given water but no food while they were held.

Israeli soldiers said the area had been declared a closed military zone. They separated the detainees by nationality, driving the Israelis to a police station in minibuses and the Americans in a larger bus.

Schoffman called the mass detention a "complete hallucination." The detainees also included Jill Jacobs, chief executive of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and 11 other American rabbis affiliated with the group.

The detentions come during the olive harvest, which has seen clashes between settlers and Palestinians. Al Jazeera reported on October 16 that settlers armed with clubs and guns had attacked people in the West Bank during the harvest, injuring at least two, including a Washington Post journalist.

Lander won the New York Democratic primary against Dan Goldman, a prominent supporter of Israel. The Guardian attributed his victory partly to his critical approach to Israel.