‘Harvesting Headlines’: Brad Lander Is Briefly Detained by IDF in West Bank Stunt

Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was briefly detained by the Israel Defense Forces after flying from New York to take part in an olive harvest protest at the West Bank. Mr. Lander posted a selfie on X of him inside a large coach, being driven away by the IDF. An hour later, Mr. Lander conducted a zoom news conference with reporters from beneath a tree, saying all but one of the people with him had been freed.He at first claimed he had been arrested, then he said he was not arrested and had in fact been detained and let off with a warning.“We were invited by Palestinian farmers,” Mr. Lander said during the news conference. “Palestinian farmers. They don’t need – and they shouldn’t need – a permit to harvest on their own land. It is state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoed Mr. Lander, saying New Yorkers who “accompanied Palestinian farmers” were “detained by the Israeli government. Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is.”The IDF said Mr. Lander and the volunteers were accompanying harvesters for an “uncoordinated olive harvest” in the area adjacent to Beitar Iiit.“In light of the security risk involved in carrying out a harvest without prior coordination near an Israeli settlement, IDF forces, Border Guard in Judea and Samaria and police from the Judea and Samaria district rushed to the scene and detain those present,” the IDF wrote on X.“It should be emphasized that approved harvests have taken place in the area,” the IDF added.“This was not about harvesting olives,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X. “It was about harvesting headlines. Brad Lander’s latest stunt is nothing more than a calculated political provocation.”The Ministry called Mr. Lander’s actions “reckless political theater.”“Lander traveled to a foreign country, deliberately entered a restricted security area, and participated in an unauthorized activity without the required coordination,” the Ministry said. “What makes this stunt even more outrageous is that his own team contacted Israeli representatives in the United States ahead of his visit and was explicitly informed that proper coordination with the relevant authorities was required.”Mr. Lander said he did inform the Embassy he had arrived and said the Ministry’s statement contained “multiple lies.”“I don’t know if I’m more embarrassed by you as a New Yorker or as a Jew,” former NYPD head of digital Yael Bar tur wrote on social media.She questioned the conditions of the alleged detention, pointing out that the volunteers were merely told to leave the area and given transport away from it.“Did the IDF provide the cell phones and air-conditioned bus in this detainment fantasy?” she asked. “You were in a closed military area and simply made to go back to your hotel.”Mr. Lander’s perfectly angled selfie also attracted attention. It showed two Israeli soldiers behind him and featured a view of the lettering on his shirt and his New York Knicks ballcap.“Checkpoint chic,” wrote Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, a former reporter for Haaretz who co-founded a synagogue on the Upper East Side with her husband. “Where is Tom Wolfe when you need him?”“You’re on an air-conditioned deluxe bus with a bunch of fellow left wing nuts playing with their iPhones,” wrote former US Ambassador to Israel David M Friedman. “You’re not fooling anyone with that “look at me I’m a victim” face.”“Brad Lander came looking for a confrontation,” the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry said. “Now he is pretending to be its victim.”Mr. Lander won a competitive Democratic primary against Congressman Dan Goldman earlier this year. He faces Republican Jessica Moore on Election Day. New York’s 10th Congressional District includes all of Lower Manhattan plus parts of western Brooklyn including Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and Red Hook.The Cook Partisan Voting Index rates the district’s leanings to be 32 points more Democratic than the national norm.

‘Harvesting Headlines’: Brad Lander Is Briefly Detained by IDF in West Bank Stunt

‘Harvesting Headlines’: Brad Lander Is Briefly Detained by IDF in West Bank Stunt

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