{"id":201615,"date":"2026-07-11T17:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/201615\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T17:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:46:17","slug":"rep-ro-khanna-detained-by-israeli-settlers-during-west-bank-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/201615\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Ro Khanna detained by Israeli settlers during West Bank visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

TURMUS AYYA, West Bank \u2014 Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he was detained by Israeli settlers <\/a>armed with U.S.-made rifles during a West Bank <\/a>visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occupation as he weighs a 2028 presidential run.<\/p>\n

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Speaking with Reuters on Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna said his \u2060group\u2019s van 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks with a Palestinian resident of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah in the West Bank on Thursday.Ammar Awad \/ Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd these hoodlums come in with machine guns \u2013 M4, an American-made machine gun \u2013 and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they \u2060call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side \u200bof the \u2060Americans,\u201d Khanna said, referring to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

An aide to Khanna who was in the group, Cameron Kasky<\/a>, said they were held for more than an hour and made appeals to the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for help. A group of officers who appeared to be \u2060police eventually intervened, leading to their release, Kasky said.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said troops and police officers intervened after receiving a report of settlers blocking vehicles \u200bnear Khirbet Zanuta, \u2060a small Palestinian hamlet whose residents were forcibly displaced by \u200cviolent settler raids following the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s police did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\"PalestiniansPalestinians from Khirbet Zanuta pack up their belongings and dismantle their homes after a decision was made as a community to leave due to alleged Israeli settler violence and harassment on Oct. 30, 2023. Marcus Yam \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images file<\/p>\n

Khanna \u200cis the second Democrat considering a White House bid to visit the region this week. \u200cIn Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Rahm Emanuel, who was chief of staff to former President Barack Obama, said Israeli policies toward Palestinians were eroding support for the U.S.-Israeli alliance.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was running for president, Khanna said: \u201cI\u2019m strongly considering it, and I\u2019m more resolved to consider it after this trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s conduct toward Palestinians has emerged as a flashpoint in Democratic politics ahead of November\u2019s U.S. midterm elections, contributing \u2060to primary defeats for some incumbent lawmakers targeted by left-wing challengers who accused them of supporting Israel\u2019s right-wing government.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s favorability rating among Democrats fell from 59% in 2018 to 22% in May, according to Reuters\/Ipsos polling.<\/p>\n

While Israel has long enjoyed strong bipartisan U.S. support, an increasing number of Democrats in Congress are now pressing to cut off military aid, which amounts to $3.8 billion per year and includes funding for light weaponry like M4 rifles and missile interceptors that Israel used in the Iran war.<\/p>\n

Overlooking a valley dotted with settler outposts on the outskirts of Turmus Ayya, a village home to thousands of Palestinian American dual nationals, Khanna said he believed his party\u2019s establishment was \u201cclueless about how much of a moral test Palestine, Gaza and Israel have become.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he chose to do \u200ca visit exclusively to the West Bank, with programming led by Palestinians, to give him an unfiltered view of territory Israel captured in \u200bthe 1967 Middle East war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re unwilling to speak up for Palestinian human rights, if you\u2019re unwilling to speak up against the \u200cgenocide in Gaza, the apartheid in the West Bank, then you \u2060are morally compromised,\u201d Khanna said.<\/p>\n

Israel rejects allegations it carried out a genocide in Gaza or that it institutes an apartheid regime in the \u2060West Bank, which has a population of about 3 million Palestinians and around 500,000 Jewish settlers.<\/p>\n

Most countries and the United Nations regard Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law, citing the \u200cFourth Geneva Convention\u2019s prohibition on transferring a civilian \u200bpopulation into occupied territory.<\/p>\n

Israel rejects that position, saying the West Bank is disputed \u200cterritory where there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years. \u200bPalestinians view the West Bank, together with Gaza and East Jerusalem, as part of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

Support remains strong among Republicans, though some elements of Trump\u2019s coalition have also called for cutting off aid. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TURMUS AYYA, West Bank \u2014 Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-201615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-israel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116902598125052383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}