NEW YORK — Presumptive NYC congressman Brad Lander on Wednesday said he was briefly detained by Israel along with a group of fellow participants in a mission to protect Palestinians during the olive harvest on the occupied West Bank.

The progressive Democrat, who is practically certain to win election to Congress from the deep blue NY-10 district, said he had a moral duty to take a stand to help Palestinians and to shine a spotlight on what he called Israeli injustice.

“What we saw today was how hard Israel works to prevent Palestinians from working their lands, living in their homes, driving on roads, staying on their land,” Lander said on a video call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. “This is state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.”

Lander posted a photo of himself apparently in an Israeli military bus with about 80 other detainees near the Palestinian village of Nehalim.

“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives,” Lander tweeted. “The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”

Lander later posted an update saying that he was released from custody along with all but one of the other participants, some of whom are Israeli citizens.

Lander stressed that he was not mistreated but was told that his activities were “illegal and wrong.”

“These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes,” Lander tweeted.

Lander is participating in Protect the Harvest, a coalition that organizes volunteers from the U.S. and around the world to accompany and support Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.

The Israeli foreign ministry denounced Lander’s action as an “outrageous stunt,” a claim he rejected. It said the olive grove was a closed military zone but Lander said Israeli military only closed the area after the harvest began on Wednesday.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani denounced Israel for the detentions.

“Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is,” Mamdani said.

Tamar Glezerman, Co-Founder of Israelis For Peace NYC, and Amira Musallam, a Palestinian activist with the Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine, are also on the trip. It’s unclear if they were also detained.

Before his arrest, Lander said he hoped to draw attention to Israeli efforts to force Palestinians from their land on the West Bank and help them carry out the harvest, which is an economic lifeline for Palestinian communities living under Israeli occupation and threats of attacks by far right-wing Israeli settlers.

“This is how we create peace,” said Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian-American who helped organize the trip.

“We’re helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives rather than be ethnically cleansed from their land,” Lander said in a video. “Palestinians are here every day harvesting their olives, trying to protect and save their land, not be pushed off it. There are Israelis and American Jews and people from all around the world trying to provide a protective presence as part of this broader effort.”

Lander, who is Jewish, is critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its war in Gaza. He overwhelmingly beat Rep. Dan Goldman in a June primary where Goldman’s backing from the conservative pro-Israel AIPAC group was a big issue.

The former city Public Advocate and losing mayoral candidate faces only token Republican opposition in the Nov. 3 general election.

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