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Brad Lander among 80 Americans, Israelis detained in West Bank : NPR
NPR • • general
Key Points:
- U.S. Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander and about 80 American and Israeli rabbis and activists were detained by Israeli security forces while helping Palestinians harvest olives near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
- Lander was released from custody, but several dozen others remain detained; this marks the largest mass detention of activists in the West Bank in at least a decade amid rising settler violence against Palestinian farmers.
- The Israeli military stated Palestinians must submit requests before the olive harvest for security coordination, and those detained had not done so; they declared the area a closed military zone before detaining the group.
- Activists were participating in "Protect the Harvest," an effort to accompany Palestinian farmers during a vulnerable harvest season increasingly disrupted by settler attacks and restrictions.
- Israeli authorities dismissed accusations of ethnic cleansing and called Lander's involvement a political stunt, while U.S. officials are monitoring the situation but have not commented further.
