A progressive congressional candidate backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was detained by the Israeli military in the West Bank on Wednesday morning. Brad Lander, a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), scored an upset primary victory this year against Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. But he was far from the New York City-area district this week, posting on X that he and others were being held by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while on a trip to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives in disputed territory.
“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know,” Lander posted on X.
Lander is one of several anti-establishment candidates who Mamdani backed in New York City Democratic primaries this year. And he’s not the first to get into a dust-up with law enforcement, either. Socialist candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., in their primary race, said she was knocked to the ground by NYPD officers during a protest against federal immigration authorities shooting an illegal immigrant in the Bronx this month.
Lander is the former New York City comptroller and a former member of the DSA. He left the organization in 2023 in response to a rally members held the day after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. The group he was with in the West Bank, Rabbis for Peace, posted a photo of Lander and said he was detained “by Israeli police for standing with Palestinians during the olive harvest” along with others.
“The Palestinians whose land this is have a right to harvest it in peace,” Lander, who is Jewish, said in a video posted by the group. It’s not clear if Lander has been released or what the terms of his detention are.
New York’s 10th Congressional District is overwhelmingly Democratic, meaning he is all but assured to win his general election and come to Congress next year.
