US Democrat Ro Khanna detained by Israeli settlers during West Bank visit
By Rami Ayyub
TURMUS AYYA, West Bank, July 11 (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with U.S.-made rifles during a visit to the West Bank this week, presenting it as an unfiltered look at the human cost of Israeli occupation as he prepares for a 2028 presidential run.
Speaking to Reuters in a Palestinian village on Thursday, Khanna said his group’s minibus was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles a day earlier while touring a part of the southern West Bank where residents face frequent settler attacks.
“We were in a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” said Khanna, a progressive lawmaker from California in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Referring to the Israeli army, Khanna said, “And these goons come with their M4 machine gun, an American-made machine gun, and they detain us. They block the road. Then they call the IDF, and the IDF is on their side, not the Americans.” he said.
Cameron Kasky, one of Khanna’s assistants who was in the group, said that they were held for more than an hour and that they appealed to the US Embassy in Jerusalem for help. A group of officers posing as police eventually intervened and secured their release, Kasky said.
The Israeli military said soldiers and police officers intervened after receiving a report that settlers were blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian hamlet forcibly displaced by violent settler raids following Hamas’ 2023 attacks on Israel.
“Upon arrival, soldiers dispersed Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,” the military said.
Neither Israeli police nor the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem immediately responded to a request for comment.
DEMOCRATS DIVIDED ON ISRAEL’S BEHAVIOR
Khanna is the second Democrat this week to consider a White House offer to visit the region. Rahm Emanuel, former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, said Wednesday in Tel Aviv that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians are eroding support for the U.S.-Israel alliance.
When asked if he would run for president, Khanna said, “I am definitely considering it and after this trip, I am more determined to consider it.”
Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has emerged as a flashpoint in Democratic politics ahead of November’s U.S. midterm elections, contributing to the primary defeats of some incumbent lawmakers targeted by leftist rivals who accuse them of supporting Israel’s right-wing government.
Israel’s favorability rating among Democrats fell to 22 percent in May from 59 percent in 2018, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
While Israel has long enjoyed strong bipartisan U.S. support, a growing number of Democrats in Congress are pushing to cut military aid, which amounts to $3.8 billion a year and includes funding for small arms such as M4 rifles and missile interceptors that Israel uses in the Iran war.
Overlooking a valley dotted with settler outposts on the outskirts of Turmus Ayya, a village home to thousands of Palestinian-American dual citizens, Khanna said he believes his party’s founding “had no idea what a moral test Palestine, Gaza and Israel have become.”
He said he chose to make a private visit to the West Bank with Palestinian-led programs to give an unfiltered view of the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
“If you are unwilling to speak out for the human rights of Palestinians, if you are unwilling to speak out against genocide in Gaza, against apartheid in the West Bank, then you are morally compromised,” Khanna said.
Israel denies claims that it committed genocide in Gaza or established an apartheid regime in the West Bank, where approximately 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Jewish settlers live.
Most countries and the United Nations consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention’s ban on transferring civilian populations to occupied territories.
Israel rejects this view, saying the West Bank is a disputed territory where there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years. Palestinians consider the West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, as part of the Palestinian state.
Support remains strong among Republicans, although some elements of Trump’s coalition have also called for cuts to aid.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Howard Goller)
