Some 90 volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights were detained by the IDF in the West Bank on Wednesday, including congressional nominee Brad Lander (D-NY) and former deputy attorney-general Yehoshua Schoffman, sources told The Jerusalem Post.
Police took the foreign volunteers to the Etzion Regional Brigade headquarters for questioning, a source at the scene told the Post.
Authorities are inclined to deport the foreign activists, the source added.
Lander was released with a warning, the source said.
Rabbis for Human Rights said the volunteers worked in the village of Nehalim near Bethlehem, accompanying Palestinian farmers to groves during the olive harvest. According to the left-leaning activist group, Palestinian farmers in the area had been unable to access the groves for three years.
Israeli security forces detain volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights in the West Bank village of Nahalin on October 21, 2026 (CREDIT: COURTESY RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS).The IDF arrived two hours after the volunteers had begun working and declared the field a closed military zone. Activists told the Post that they complied with the military orders and agreed to leave the area, but were still detained.
Activists were then split between foreign nationals and Israeli citizens, and transported to a police station for processing. One of the detained activists confirmed to the Post that no one was harmed during the process.
Rabbis for Human Rights activists detained in West Bank
Lander wrote that he was "simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank."
"The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know," he added.
Schoffman posted a message to X/Twitter as he was being detained, and noted that there was no confrontation with the soldiers or with any settler extremists in the area.
Leadership from Rabbis for Human Rights said that their work in the West Bank was peaceful, and that it was the organization's policy to comply with IDF orders.
"We came to accompany farmers to land they had been unable to access for three years, and after two hours of peaceful olive harvesting, large numbers of troops arrived and closed off the area. No one could have known about this order in advance. Instead of protecting people working their land, the army is keeping them away from it and detaining those who came to accompany them for identification,” acting executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights Anton Goodman said.
Left-wing Jewish organizations decry detainment of activists assisting Palestinian farmers
T'ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs was among those detained as well. In a statement, she criticized the IDF, stating that "rather than protecting Palestinian farmers and ensuring their right to work their own land, the Israeli military forcibly removed those who came to provide a protective presence."
"This is an outrageous abuse of power, and part of a systematic, state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at driving Palestinians from their land," she added.
“The Israeli government is actively advancing the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank, using its military to deny Palestinians access to their land and intimidate those who stand alongside them. As rabbis, we have a moral obligation to confront these injustices, especially when they are carried out in our name.
In a joint statement, the Reform Movement in Israel and the Council of Reform Rabbis in Israel called the incident appalling.
"It is inconceivable that, instead of arresting and prosecuting the Jewish extremists who engage in theft and violence, security forces are arresting rabbi activists who are acting in accordance with Jewish values of love for humanity and the pursuit of justice," said Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism Anna Kislanski.
"This is a moral loss of control that tarnishes not only the State of Israel but also its relationship with Diaspora Jewry. We call for the immediate release of all those detained and for decisive action against those Jewish extremists who are, in fact, breaking the law daily.”
Israeli security forces detain volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights in the West Bank village of Nahalin on October 21, 2026 (CREDIT: COURTESY RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS).
In a video posted before his detainment, Lander said that Palestinians have a right to harvest peacefully on their lands, and that it is a commandment in Judaism to assist those in need.
Why were left-wing activists helping harvest olives?
On Tuesday, Lander, the former New York City comptroller, posted a video announcing that he was volunteering in the West Bank with the organization.
"Our goals for the trip are to help protect the olive harvest - and to shed a light on the reality of the occupation. To ensure that international solidarity goes beyond the harvest, to become a sustained commitment to protecting Palestinian communities from settler violence, forced displacement, and the ongoing threats to their right to remain on their land," he wrote.
"Thankfully, our corner of today's harvest was peaceful and successful. But violence, unfortunately, is never far away."
Follow us on GoogleSource: The Jerusalem Post · CORINNE BAUM
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