KVIG Informative

A sitting member of Congress was held for more than an hour by men carrying American-made rifles, and when Israeli soldiers arrived, they did not free him.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., says his van was surrounded by Israeli settlers armed with M4 rifles while he toured the southern West Bank on a three-day trip in July. The confrontation happened near Khirbet Zanuta, a Palestinian hamlet whose residents were driven out by settler raids following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. Khanna’s aide, Cameron Kasky, said the group was held for more than an hour and had to call the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for help before officers intervened.

Khanna described the moment plainly: hoodlums with American-made machine guns blocked the road, called the IDF, and the IDF sided with the settlers rather than the Americans. The Israeli military disputes his account. It says troops and police intervened after receiving a report of settlers blocking vehicles, and that they dispersed civilians and reopened the road.

Khanna pushed back on that version in an NPR interview, saying the military has since admitted his group was in a zone it was legally allowed to enter, that soldiers were parked at the scene and did not disperse the settlers, and that they claimed to be waiting for police orders before acting. Video of the incident exists. Witnesses have corroborated Khanna’s account.

Khanna was standing in the ruins of a school that settlers destroyed years earlier when a staffer spotted an armed settler smiling at the group through a broken window. Khanna, who is weighing a 2028 presidential run, has co-sponsored the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which would codify sanctions on Israeli settlers, and introduced a resolution in January opposing settlement expansion. He has also called for the arrest of the settlers who detained his van.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the pro-Israel group J Street, backed Khanna’s account without endorsing his politics. Ben-Ami said J Street has repeatedly witnessed the same pattern in the same communities: intimidation and threats from extremist settlers, followed by an Israeli military response that chases away the visitors rather than stopping the harassment. Pro-Israel commentators took the opposite view, accusing Khanna of provoking the incident for a photo opportunity.

The incident was not isolated. Days later, the Israeli military said it detained four suspects who attacked foreign journalists, including a CNN crew, traveling to the West Bank village of Sinjil to cover the anniversary of a Palestinian-American man beaten to death by settlers. The assailants blocked the journalists’ vehicle with clubs and knives.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including its settlements, violates international law. Israeli officials condemn the worst incidents of settler violence but describe them as exceptions. The attackers are rarely punished. A congressman with Capitol Police clearance and an embassy on speed dial needed an hour and outside intervention to get free. Palestinians living in Zanuta do not have that option.