It was olive-harvest season in Judea and Samaria. It was also election season in New York. That cannot be separated from Brad Lander’s decision to leave the district he hopes to represent and join activists near Beitar Illit’s security fence.
Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, was briefly detained Wednesday while accompanying Palestinian farmers near the village of Nahalin.
“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers,” Lander posted. “We were simply harvesting olives.”
Taken alone, those words create the image Lander needed: Israeli forces descending upon peaceful farmers and rabbis for picking olives. That narrative unraveled through my conversation with Lt. Dean Elsdunne, international spokesman for the Israel Police, who supplied the missing sequence.
Elsdunne shared police statements saying the activists had arrived “without prior coordination” at an agricultural area near Beitar Illit’s security fence, where olive harvesting was prohibited without authorization. IDF and Border Police forces were then dispatched with officers from the Etzion Police Station.
The most revealing part of this story emerges only when the scattered pieces are placed together: an experienced group, no advance coordination, olives that were not yet ripe, an election less than two weeks away, and immediate condemnation from New York before the police account was considered. Most headlines captured the detention. Few examined the chain of choices that produced it.
Elsdunne said police were examining the incident with the Israel Defense Forces, the Foreign Affairs and Interior ministries, and authorities “with the aim of preventing friction, public disturbances, and incidents that could cause international damage.” That is the damage this episode produced.
I contacted T’ruah for comment, asking why it or its partners had not coordinated with the IDF in advance. This organized group had participated in similar visits before and should have known the procedures. T’ruah never responded.
The local farmers themselves acknowledged that the olives were not yet ripe, while making clear they would accept whatever assistance they could receive. The delegation could have coordinated a later visit when its assistance would have been more useful and less likely to create a security confrontation.
It did not.
Imagine the backlash if a pro-Israel candidate left the United States less than two weeks before an election for a politically charged appearance in Israel. Critics would question the candidate’s timing, judgment, and priorities. Brad Lander deserves exactly the same scrutiny.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the episode a “calculated political provocation.”
“This was not about harvesting olives,” it declared. “It was about harvesting headlines.” The ministry added: “Brad Lander came looking for a confrontation. Now he is pretending to be its victim.”
Elsdunne’s police update undercuts the suggestion that authorities indiscriminately imprisoned peaceful visitors. It said 32 activists were questioned and released with restrictions prohibiting their return to the area. The remaining 40 were released that afternoon after investigators found no grounds to hold them further.
Four foreign activists faced additional proceedings after police said their online anti-Israel activity had been identified, including expressions of support for organizations opposed to Israel. Those cases were transferred to the Population and Immigration Authority for hearings, according to the statement Elsdunne provided.
Lander, meanwhile, was released after authorities learned he was a congressional candidate. Others spent longer absorbing the consequences of a political performance that experienced organizers should have prevented.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani amplified Lander’s framing without qualification.
“Today Brad Lander, rabbis, and other New Yorkers accompanied Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. For that, they were detained by the Israeli government,” Mamdani wrote.
“Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is,” he continued, while accusing Israel of committing “a horrific genocide against Palestinians.”
That was not an attempt to understand Elsdunne’s documented sequence. It was a political indictment delivered before the police account had been considered.
This is not the first time an American politician has turned an Israeli security response into political content. In July, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) claimed soldiers and settlers detained his delegation during a visit to Judea and Samaria. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the embassy had not been notified.
“We would have said don’t go to restricted zone,” Huckabee wrote.
Once may be poor preparation. Repeating the formula looks like a strategy: enter a sensitive area without ensuring authorities have been notified, wait for security forces to respond, and portray that response as proof of Israeli oppression.
The performance is politically fraudulent. It removes the decisions that produced the confrontation and sells the response as the entire story.
These political stunts must stop. Israel and the IDF should not be used as campaign props by American politicians seeking attention or approval from their political base. Every edited video and context-free accusation strengthens a narrative in which Israel is presumed guilty before the facts are known. Jewish students, synagogues, businesses, and communities across America are left carrying the consequences.
Violence against Palestinian farmers or their property should be investigated and punished. Supporting Palestinian rights does not require erasing Israel’s security responsibilities or manufacturing confrontations.
BRAD LANDER THOUGHT HE WAS AN ALLY. THE MOB JUST SAW A JEW
Lander is running to represent New Yorkers in Congress. Voters should ask why, less than two weeks before Election Day, he was harvesting olives near Beitar Illit instead of addressing the people whose votes he is seeking.
The trees produced a crop. The confrontation produced footage, outrage, and political attention. The olives could wait. Lander’s campaign could not.
Ariella Noveck is a journalist and Washington Examiner opinion contributor specializing in antisemitism, Israel, and Middle East affairs, with extensive experience covering Jewish communities worldwide. Her work includes on-the-ground reporting, interviews with world leaders, and analysis of major geopolitical events. She can be followed on X and Instagram @AriellaNoveck.