Israel detains U.S. candidate and volunteers in West Bank olive harvest

On Oct. 21, 2026, Israeli security forces detained about 80 volunteers, including U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander, near the village of Nahalin in the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera. According to NPR, the group was helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives from a grove close to the settlement of Beitar Illit. According to Al Jazeera, soldiers checked the volunteers’ IDs and declared the area a closed military zone. According to Al Jazeera, the group was later taken to a police station.

Lander was released from Israeli military custody with a warning, according to Al Jazeera. According to Lander’s X post, several dozen others, including American, Israeli, Palestinian, British and Canadian volunteers, remain detained. According to a statement on X, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Lander staged a “calculated political provocation” and ignored instructions to coordinate with authorities. The ministry also said the area was not a restricted security zone, according to the same statement.

According to NPR, the Israeli military said that harvesting in the area requires farmers to submit requests before the olive‑harvest season, and that no request had been submitted by the Palestinian farmers. According to NPR, the military also said that the detentions were the largest mass detention of activists in the West Bank in at least a decade, according to two Israeli lawyers. According to Becca Strober, the volunteers were part of the Protect the Harvest Coalition.

According to Rabbis for Human Rights, the volunteers had no knowledge of the closed‑zone order and offered to leave voluntarily when told. According to the Israeli military statement, the group was detained to maintain public order and security. According to Lander’s statements on X and NPR, the occupation is a crime under international law, but harvesting olives is not.