US Democrats pan Israel’s brief detention of congressional candidate in West Bank

Condemnations are pouring in from Democratic US lawmakers over Israel’s brief detention of Congressional candidate Brad Lander.

“Last week, out-of-control settlers injured an American journalist. Now, the IDF targets volunteers for helping Palestinians harvest olives. The eyes of the world are on the West Bank,” tweets Rep. Jamie Raskin.

Lander was detained with roughly 80 other Americans and Israelis who were accompanying Palestinian olive harvesters who have come under repeated attacks by settlers.

Israeli authorities claimed that the group did not coordinate their activity as required, but official maps distributed by the Defense Ministry showed that the detentions took place in an area that did not require prior authorization to enter.

All of those detained have been released, except for four American activists who Israel is deporting from the country.

“I’m glad that Brad has been released — but he should never have been detained in the first place. Everyone else needs to be released immediately,” tweets Rep. Greg Cesar, urging the passage of legislation barring the import of settlement goods.

Rep. Ro Khanna, who was briefly detained by IDF-backed settlers earlier this year, writes that he is “waiting for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [President] Isaac Herzog to pipe in calling Brad Lander a liar who is staging a photo op. Or maybe Mr. [Steve] Witkoff will be brazen enough to compliment Netanyahu & Herzog as great humanitarians like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [US President Donald] Trump.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani uses the incident to again accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Senator Chris Van Hollen writes: “If this is how they treat Americans, imagine how they treat Palestinians. Trump & Rubio’s silence fuels this impunity.”

While much of the criticism comes from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, the more centrist Jewish Democratic Council of America also calls out the Israeli conduct.

“The detention of American rabbis, volunteers and a congressional candidate is unacceptable,” JDCA CEO Halie Soifer writes.