US Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, said on Saturday that he was detained for 90 minutes by armed Israeli settlers during a visit to the occupied West Bank. The 49-year-old lawmaker was traveling in a van with his team on Wednesday when they were surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles, he told Reuters news agency.
Incident Details
Writing on X, Khanna said that when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived, “they sided with the settlers and continued our detention.” The BBC has reached out to the IDF for comment. The Israeli military said in a statement that troops and police officers took action after receiving a report that settlers had blocked vehicles in the area. “Upon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,” the IDF said.
Fact-Finding Mission
Khanna was visiting the ruins of Khirbet Zanuta on a fact-finding mission to assess the impact of Israeli occupation. The politician, a father of two, is considering a presidential run in 2028. “We 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,” he said. “And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans,” Khanna said.
Detention and Release
While they were detained, an aide with Khanna said they made appeals to the US Embassy in Jerusalem for help. They were released after a group of police officers intervened. According to the IDF, troops dispersed the settlers and allowed the vehicles to proceed.
Context of Settlements
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek these territories, along with Gaza, for a future state. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside the settlements.
