United States Democratic Party lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by Israeli settlers during a visit he made to West Bank this week.
Khanna, who is considering a White House bid in the next presidential elections in 2028, said the settlers were armed with US-made M4 rifles.
“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,” Khanna, a progressive lawmaker from California and member of the US House of Representatives, said.
He said that his group’s van was surrounded by settlers and he was detained, while the road was also blocked to prevent them from leaving. “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 (Israeli Defense Forces) and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans,” Khanna said while speaking to news agency Reuters in a Palestinian village.
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Held for over an hour, appeals to US embassy
Meanwhile, Cameron Kasky, an aide to Khanna who was also part of the group, said they were held by the settlers for more than an hour, according to the Reuters report. The group made appeals to the US Embassy in Jerusalem to help, Kasky added.
Following this, some officers who appeared to be from the police force reached the site and intervened, and the group was released thereafter, Kasky stated. The Israeli military confirmed the development, saying troops and police personnel had intervened after they received reports of settlers blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian hamlet. Residents of the hamlet had been displaced by settler raids following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
“Upon their arrival, the troops dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to continue on their way,” Reuters cited the military as saying.
‘More resolved to consider’ presidential run
When asked whether he was considering a White House bid in 2028, Khanna said he was “more resolved” to do so after this trip. “I’m strongly considering it and I’m more resolved to consider it after this trip,” Khanna told Reuters.
Khanna is the second Democrat to considering a presidential run to visit the region this week. Rahm Emanuel in Tel Aviv earlier this week said Israeli policies toward Palestinians were eroding support for the US-Israeli alliance, Reuters reported. The Israeli conduct towards the Palestinians had been a flashpoint for Democratic politics ahead of November’s midterm elections in the US.
