Israeli forces detained Democratic US congressional nominee Brad Lander, along with dozens of activists and Palestinian farmers, as they took part in the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank, an activist said.
Palestinian activist Amira Muslim told Anadolu on Wednesday that the Israeli forces held 45 foreign activists, including Lander, as well as 25 Israeli activists, while they were harvesting olives in the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem.
She said the Israeli forces stopped the activists, placed them on buses and transferred them to a nearby illegal settlement. Their final destination and whereabouts remained unclear.
The group also included activists from a Jewish organisation based in New York City, Muslim added.
No further information was immediately available on the number of Palestinian farmers detained or whether Israeli forces had released any of those held.
Lander confirmed his detention in a post on X, saying he was detained "along with a group of rabbis and volunteers".
"We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank," he added.
Noting that the occupation constitutes a crime according to international law, he added, "Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know."
Attacks by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their land in the occupied West Bank intensify during the olive harvest season.
The attacks include assaulting farmers, preventing them from accessing their land, stealing crops and damaging trees.
The olive harvest season, which began on October 9, has been marred by a surge in settler violence.
In the first week alone, 36 attacks struck 27 Palestinian villages, leaving one Palestinian dead and 99 wounded, while more than 1,430 trees and saplings, mostly olive, were destroyed and 40 vehicles vandalised.
The assault on the harvest is part of a broader pattern: since October 7, 2023, Israeli settlers and soldiers have destroyed 37,237 olive trees and attacked 7,154 Palestinians and their properties, methodically dismantling a way of life rooted in the land for generations.
Official Palestinian figures indicate that around 750,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, across 194 settlements and approximately 400 outposts.
