Democrat Ro Khanna accuses soldiers of supporting the settlers, warning that Israeli forces made a ‘huge mistake’.
Published On 11 Jul 2026
A Democratic lawmaker from the United States says he and his tour group were detained by rifle-wielding Israeli settlers during a trip to Palestine.
In a post on X on Saturday, Ro Khanna accused the Israeli army of supporting the settlers.
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“When the [Israeli army] arrived, they sided with the settlers and continued our detention,” Khanna wrote, saying he will release more details about the ordeal soon.
The incident has drawn renewed attention to settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which has surged since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza nearly three years ago.
Rights groups say settlers have been emboldened by the Israeli government, while Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Last month, several Western countries sanctioned networks linked to settler violence.
Khanna, who is considering running for US president in 2028, warned that the Israelis had made a “huge mistake”.
On Thursday, he told the Reuters news agency that “hoodlums … with machine guns” had detained his group a day earlier. “They block off the road. And then they call the [Israeli military] and the [Israeli military] is on their side,” Khanna said.
He added that the settlers were armed with US-made assault rifles.
In an interview with DRM News, Khanna said his experience in the occupied West Bank and Israel was the “first time” he had “really been acutely aware of being brown”.
“I saw the arrogance in the eyes of those settlers. Twenty-one and 22-year-olds with guns, laughing that they had detained us. The arrogance of those young [Israeli army] soldiers that my tax dollars are funding. Having no respect for the fact that they were detaining Americans,” he added.
Cameron Kasky, an aide to Khanna who was in the group, said they were held for more than an hour and made appeals to the US embassy in Jerusalem for help.
He said they were eventually released after officers, who appeared to be police, intervened.
The Israeli military said troops and police officers intervened after receiving a report of settlers blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian hamlet whose residents were forcibly displaced by violent settler raids at the start of Israel’s 2023 genocidal Gaza war.
Israel, which has long enjoyed bipartisan support in the US, has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, with both Republicans and Democrats calling for an end to US military aid.
Congress is currently reviewing new military spending legislation that, if passed, would deepen the US’s defence ties with Israel. Republican Thomas Massie and Khanna have been pushing for lawmakers to end military aid to Israel.
Last week, Khanna said the House Rules Committee had cancelled a vote on a bill proposed by Massie, which he co-sponsored, calling for an end to US funding for Israel’s military.
