Ro Khanna says he was detained by armed Israeli settlers in West Bank

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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said on Saturday he was detained for over an hour in the West Bank earlier this week by Israeli settlers and that the detention continued with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers arrived on the scene.

“Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine,” Khanna wrote in a social media post.

“When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention,” he continued. “They made a huge mistake.”

The Democratic lawmaker and potential 2028 presidential contender told The New York Times that he was visiting a small Palestinian village in the southern West Bank on Wednesday when armed men blocked the road and began swearing at him and his team and kicking the minibus they were traveling in.

After the progressive lawmaker and his team contacted the U.S. embassy, Khanna told CNN that four IDF soldiers arrived at the scene and sided with the settlers. Eventually, the group was freed after communication between the U.S. embassy and a high-level Israeli official.

Khanna, who has long been critical of Israel and accused the country of genocide in Gaza, called on the Israeli government to prosecute the involved IDF soldiers and settlers in an interview with CNN on Saturday.

He also warned in his interview with the Times that it was “not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates,” and he indicated this experience would inform a potential presidential run in 2028.

The Hill has reached out to Khanna’s office, the State Department and the White House for more information about this incident.

The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Congress to condemn Khanna’s detention in a Saturday statement.

“If an American elected representative can be stopped, intimidated and prevented from traveling freely, imagine what Palestinians endure every day without the protection of congressional office or international attention,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said.

“Congress must reject settler violence, oppose Israel’s illegal occupation and annexation policies, and ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are not used to facilitate ongoing Israeli human rights abuses,” Awad continued.

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Nihad Awad

Rep. Ro Khanna

Ro Khanna

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