US congressional candidate Brad Lander detained at West Bank harvest

Israeli forces detained U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander on Wednesday as he supported Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the occupied West Bank, releasing him hours afterwards while dozens of other volunteers, including a group of American rabbis, remained in custody.

What happened

Notably, the incident was the latest in an annual olive harvest that has been marked by violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers attempting to gather their crops.

In practice, the Israeli military remarked the farmers and volunteers had failed to seek prior approval for the harvest and were detained "due to the security risk posed by conducting an uncoordinated harvest near an Israeli community." It afterwards continued that it viewed "the arrival of dozens of activists as an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process."

Lander is running in the U.S. Elections on Nov. 3 to represent a heavily Democratic New York district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bottom line

In short, US congressional candidate Brad Lander detained at West Bank harvest is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.