Rep. Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him in West Bank
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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said armed Israeli settlers detained him and other U.S. citizens during a recent tour of the occupied West Bank in an incident that is thrusting the California congressman into the international debate over human rights in the Palestinian territories and U.S. foreign aid to Israel as he openly weighs a 2028 presidential bid.
Khanna said settlers surrounded his group’s van on Wednesday near the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta in the southern West Bank. Carrying U.S.-made rifles, the settlers kicked the van’s tires and filmed the scene, “laughing at us,” Khanna said during an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Twenty minutes later, four soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces arrived. Rather than securing their safety, Khanna said, the soldiers detained his entourage until he reached an official at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Seventy-five minutes after the settlers first stopped the group, Khanna said, they were allowed to leave.
“How dare they mistreat people with an American passport,” Khanna said.
In a statement about the incident involving Khanna, the Israeli military said troops and police intervened after receiving a report about the settlers blocking vehicles. “Upon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,” it said.
Khanna rejected the explanation, saying “the IDF is lying,” and called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open an investigation of the settlers and soldiers involved in the incident.
Visiting Israel has been a bipartisan rite for members of Congress for decades. Khanna instead chose a West Bank trip. His visit took place amid growing Democratic unease with Israel’s military conduct since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli war in Gaza.
Israeli military operations in the Jenin refugee camp have displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, for whom the camp has long been a symbol of resistance.
At least one congressional representative was critical of the incident — for reasons other than the detention.
“Sounds like another plea for publicity,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) wrote in a post on X. “Anything to get in front of the camera. Why else would you be there? It isn’t your country.”
Cameron Kasky, an aide to Khanna who was in the group, said on X that the visit included meetings with “many Palestinian Americans” and that the group was held for more than an hour.
The West Bank is territory Israel captured in 1967 and has occupied since. About 3 million Palestinians live there alongside hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers. Many nations have condemned the settlements, and in June, six countries, including Britain and France, issued new sanctions on Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank.
Florida teen Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim is accused of throwing stones at Israeli vehicles. His family has not spoken with him since his West Bank arrest in February.
Israel sees the area as disputed land with a long history of Jewish residents.
“I saw the arrogance in the eyes of those settlers, 21- and 22-year-olds with guns, laughing that they had detained us,” Khanna said in a video interview he reposted to X. “It is the arrogance of power, of a power that has had no accountability, total impunity, and has created a toxic culture of oppression.”
Khanna is the second Democrat mulling a White House bid to visit the region in recent days. Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff under President Obama, spoke Wednesday at Tel Aviv University. During his speech, Emanuel said that the U.S.-Israel alliance “is at a crossroads,” saying “it cannot stand or survive as it has been.”
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