By Debra Nussbaum Cohen, JNS
The presumptive next representative of New York’s 12th Congressional District spoke with reporters after being detained by the Israeli military for harvesting olives without permission.
Brad Lander, Democratic nominee for New York’s 12th Congressional District, said on Wednesday that once he is sworn in as a member of Congress, he will co-sponsor legislation that would ban the United States from importing items produced in Judea and Samaria.
The former New York City comptroller, who has accused Israel of “genocide,” spoke with reporters via Zoom from a hotel in the Palestinian Authority town of Beit Jala.
He had been released earlier from Israeli military detention after joining about 60 North American and British rabbis who, with local Palestinians, were picking olives during harvest season, he said.
They had picked olives without incident on Monday and Tuesday in a different location, but on Wednesday, in a grove within sight of Israeli residents, they were detained by Israeli authorities, according to Lander. He said that he was released with a warning after about an hour.
Lander, who beat Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) in the primary, is expected to win the deep-blue seat, which represents Park Slope in Brooklyn, in the midterm election.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom Lander supported after running unsuccessfully against him in the mayoral race, has backed Lander in the congressional race. Mamdani, whose rhetoric endangers Jewish New Yorkers, according to Jewish leaders, also released a statement about Lander’s detention.
During the call with reporters, Lander said that once he is sworn in, he intends to co-sponsor a bill that Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) introduced that would prevent U.S. companies from doing business in, or importing goods from, Judea or Samaria.
The “Stop the Settlements Act” would halt “construction of new settlements and the expansion of existing Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank and Gaza through sanctions and a prohibition on importing goods made in these settlements and outposts,” Castro stated.
More than 50 congressmen have already signed on as co-sponsors, Castro stated.
Jonathan Schulman, executive director of the pro-Israel nonprofit Jewish Majority, told JNS that he didn’t know about the legislation to comment upon it. “What we’re seeing is a case where Brad Lander is concerned that he will be primaried by anti-Zionists in 2028,” Schulman said.
He thinks that Lander’s position is more about political positioning than sincere belief.
“The idea that Brad Lander is trying to paint Israel in the most negative light to protect himself from an anti-Zionist challenger shouldn’t surprise anyone,” Schulman told JNS.
“As I enter Congress, I do expect to be more involved in foreign affairs,” Lander told reporters on the call.
“This is a place I care about a lot as an American Jew,” Lander said, of Israel.
“I am a proud Jewish New Yorker. I long for a Jewish and democratic Israel,” he said. “That’s impossible with occupation. This is the place where we are sending by far the most U.S. dollars for much of the infrastructure that sustains state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.”
