Mamdani-Linked Democratic Congressional Nominee Detained by IDF While in West Bank

A Mamdani-linked New York congressional candidate who’s poised to easily be elected to Congress in November was detained by the Israel Defense Forces while partaking in an olive harvest in the West Bank.

The detained candidate was identified by The Times of Israel as Brad Lander, who’s running to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House, and who’s “an ally of” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Lander, who polls show is trouncing his Republican opponent in the ongoing congressional race, announced his detention in a post published to the social media site X early Wednesday morning.

“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers,” he wrote in the post. “We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank.”

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. https://t.co/r7B5Q3RvjY

— Brad Lander (@bradlander) October 21, 2026

According to The Times of Israel, Lander was picking olives alongside members of Rabbis for Human Rights, a left-wing group.

Gilad Kariv, a member of the Knesset who reportedly previously worked with the group, announced in an X post of his own that the organization had brought 80 volunteers to pick olives in the Nahalin region.

“After two calm hours IDF and police forces came and announced a closed military zone and demanded the volunteers to get on a bus ordered by the military,” Kariv added in Hebrew, according to a translation from The Times of Israel.

Meanwhile, Lander published an updated X post later Wednesday morning announcing that he’d finally been released from custody.

“I’ve been released from IDF custody with a ‘warning,’ apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee),” he wrote.

I’ve been released from IDF custody with a “warning,” apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee).

But several dozen rabbis & participants harvesting olives with me are still in detention. For harvesting olives. They should all be released immediately…

— Brad Lander (@bradlander) October 21, 2026

Lander continued his X post by revealing that “several dozen rabbis & participants” who’d been harvesting olives with him were still in detention.

Concluding his post, Lander, who, according to NBC News, previously accused Israel of waging a “genocide” against the Palestinians, tied his detention to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

“To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day,” he alleged. “These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes. Yet one more element of escalating, and very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.”

Despite his pro-Palestinian views and close ties to New York City’s Islamic mayor, Lander was heckled in August by pro-Palestinian protesters who called him a “Zionist”:

The irony, his critics say, is that, according to New York station WABC-TV, Lander chose to travel to the West Bank months after being heckled precisely “to support Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest and promote ‘human rights, safety, equality & freedom for both Palestinians and Israelis.’”

Israeli-American real estate investor and philanthropist Adam Milstein previously called Lander a “useful idiot” in an X post.

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