Israel frees congressional candidate Brad Lander, as official map shows activists didn’t enter forbidden West Bank area as authorities claimed

Israeli authorities have released US congressional candidate Brad Lander after detaining him along with dozens of Jewish American and Israeli activists who were accompanying Palestinians harvesting their olives in the central West Bank.

The IDF and Israel Police claim the harvest on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Nahalin was not coordinated with authorities, as required.

But a map distributed to Palestinian farmers by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration unit shows that the area where the group was detained was not actually in an area that required prior coordination.

Nonetheless, the group of roughly 80 activists is still being held at a police station in the Beitar Illit settlement for questioning and processing. Only Lander has been released after he was identified as a candidate for US Congress — an indication that Israeli authorities wanted to avoid a further international incident after widely covered settler attacks on reporters and foreign diplomats over the weekend.

אז יש מצב שיש פה פארסה גדולה ו-80 איש עוכבו סתם. אוליב החטיבה המרחבית עציון והמנהל האזרחי מתקשה לקרוא מפה.

לפי המפה של המנהל השטח שבו עוכבו הפעילים לא נדרש בתיאום.

מצרף את הצילום מהמפה של המנהל-מה שנדרש בתיאום זה המסומן באדום
ואת המיקום שבו הם עוכבו ב-???? https://t.co/inLAoQAAeF pic.twitter.com/hUSAAGBDJ8

— Haim Goldich | חיים גולדיטש (@HGoldich) October 21, 2026

Democrats party MK Gilad Kariv tweets: “If someone at the Foreign Ministry, in the IDF or at the Population and Immigration Authority doesn’t stop this madness, it will cause enormous damage to relations with Jews of the United States — and entirely justifiably so.”

Groups of foreign and left-wing Israeli activists have been joining Palestinian olive harvesters in growing numbers to try and protect them from settler attacks, which have gone largely unchecked.

The delegation in Nahalin was organized by Rabbis for Human Rights, whose spokesperson insists to The Times of Israel that no prior coordination was required for the area where the group was harvesting olives.

Lander posts on X that he was released from Israeli custody “with a ‘warning’ — apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee).” Lander is the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th congressional district, and is a lock to join the House of Representatives after the election in two weeks, given that the district is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Lander calls for the release of all of those detained.

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… pic.twitter.com/BcSNkTYUxF

— Brad Lander (@bradlander) October 21, 2026

“To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day. 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,” he adds.

The Israel Police has defended the detentions, issuing a statement insisting that the activists had entered an area near the fence of the Beitar Illit settlement that required approval before entering.

But after reporters began publishing the Civil Administration’s map showing that wasn’t the case, the IDF issued its own statement arguing that the area in question isn’t marked on the map because Palestinians had never asked to harvest their olives in that section before.

It’s unclear why the army would have expected Palestinians to request authorization to enter an area that Israeli authorities did not say required coordination ahead of time.

The IDF says it has now provided the owner of the land plots near Beitar Illit with the necessary contact information for coordinating such harvests with the army in the future.

Police stress in their statement that the force immediately released Lander upon learning that he was a congressional candidate, without making any mention of the status of the dozens of other detainees.

Police add that officers are “currently reviewing the incident in consultation with the IDF, the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and other relevant authorities, with the aim of preventing friction, public disturbances, and incidents that could result in international repercussions.”