New York City congressional candidate Brand Lander said he was detained in the West Bank of Israel by the Israeli military while harvesting olives.

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- New York City congressional candidate Brand Lander said Wednesday that he was detained in the West Bank of Israel by the Israeli military as he volunteered to help with the olive harvest there.

In a post on X, Lander said: "I've been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank."

He shared a photo of himself on a bus with the other detainees.

"The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn't a crime under any law I know," he added.

He later posted that he had been released because he is a public official, but that others were still detained.

Lander, who is Jewish, is a former New York City comptroller running for Congress in New York's 10th Congressional District. He was in Israel with the Protect the Harvest organization.

In a phone interview, Lander told The New York Times that he had been detained for about three hours and then released.

"I was eventually released and I was told I was being given a warning, that my actions were illegal and wrong, and that we had created a public disturbance and gone where we weren't supposed to go," Lander said in an interview from Beit Jala in the West Bank.

Lander told The Times that he protested his release.

"I hadn't done anything different from anyone else, and I certainly didn't deserve any special treatment," he said.

"The rabbis and others are still there in detention, and we don't know -- obviously they're under threat of deportation, and all we were doing was harvesting olives," he said.

The steering committee for Protect the Harvest said the international volunteers were being held at the Etzion military base in the West Bank, and the Israeli detainees were held at the Beitar Illit police station in Israel.

He said that on Monday and Tuesday, the group had harvested olives in another area of the West Bank without incident.

The trip was organized in part by Israelis for Peace and Rabbis for Human Rights. Lander said there were about 60 volunteers in the group, including 40 foreign nationals, who were mostly Americans.

Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has surged recently, with attacks on international diplomats and journalists. On Monday, Israeli police arrested 10 people accused of attacking two groups of people in the olive harvest.