{"id":538308,"date":"2026-07-12T22:23:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538308\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:23:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:23:04","slug":"detained-by-settlers-us-democrat-ro-khanna-now-faces-pro-israel-attacks-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538308\/","title":{"rendered":"Detained by settlers, US Democrat Ro Khanna now faces pro-Israel attacks | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

As rights advocates decry the detention of United States Congressman Ro Khanna<\/a> by armed Israeli settlers, Israel and its allies are launching political attacks to discredit the progressive legislator.<\/p>\n

Israeli officials have already ruled out apologising to Khanna or holding the settlers accountable. Instead, several have gone on the offensive against the congressman.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Khanna said he was travelling to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday when armed settlers stopped his van for 20 minutes. The settlers were later joined by Israeli soldiers who continued to block the road.<\/p>\n

The whole ordeal lasted more than an hour, according to Khanna, and was only resolved after he reached out to the US embassy in Israel.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Michael Leiter, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the US, appeared to blame Khanna for the mistreatment he received, saying that the California Democrat had failed to coordinate his trip with the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe decided to coordinate his trip not with Israel, but with Palestinian activists and with J Street,\u201d Leiter told CBS News, referencing a Jewish nonprofit.<\/p>\n

Leiter went on to claim, without evidence, that Khanna may have waited to release his video of Wednesday\u2019s incident to distract from his support for politician Graham Platner.<\/p>\n

Platner dropped out<\/a> of the Senate race in Maine on Friday amid sexual misconduct allegations. Khanna published his video on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe this had more something to do with his support of Graham Platner beforehand and the difficulties he had with that, and trying to shift the focus to something else. Perhaps? I\u2019m asking a question,\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n

Khanna is not backing down, however. He said he did inform Israel of his travel and has called for the arrest of settlers who held up his van.<\/p>\n

Khanna responds<\/p>\n

The Israeli military has disputed Khanna\u2019s version of the events, saying that it \u201cdispersed\u201d civilians who were blocking the road. But in an appearance on Sunday with NBC News, Khanna refuted that account.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Israeli military] is lying,\u201d Khanna said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was unprecedented. They had violent settlers detain American citizens, including an American government official. You had these settlers brandishing M4s [rifles], kicking the tyres of our van, laughing at us, mocking at us, videotaping us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the Israeli military participated in blocking their path and detaining them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow dare they mistreat people with an American passport that way?\u201d Khanna said.<\/p>\n

Pro-Israel politicians, however, claimed that Khanna provoked his own detention by carrying out a political stunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds like another plea for publicity. Anything to get in front of the camera. Why else would you be there? It isn\u2019t your country,\u201d Republican Congressman Greg Murphy wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Critics were quick to point out that Murphy\u2019s first trip as part of a congressional delegation was to Israel.<\/p>\n

Khanna also responded to Murphy, urging him to be on \u201cTeam America\u201d and join the push for any settlers and soldiers who mistreat US citizens to face consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be calling for that if you had been in our shoes,\u201d Khanna said.<\/p>\n

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson was among those who came to Khanna\u2019s defence. He criticised Mike Huckabee<\/a>, the US ambassador to Israel, for failing to speak out about the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn American member of congress is threatened by foreign terrorists carrying American rifles, backed by a foreign military paid for by American taxpayers, and the US ambassador to that country says not a word in defense of his own countryman,\u201d Carlson wrote on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too much, too insulting and humiliating to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, many pro-Israel figures in the US expressed scepticism about Khanna\u2019s experience. David Friedman, a former US envoy to Israel, accused Khanna of \u201cself-victimization\u201d.<\/p>\n

Friedman argued, without evidence, that Khanna had purposely entered a restricted zone to provoke the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs was entirely predictable, he was asked a few questions and sent on his way. But he got the photo op and all he needed for his pre-conceived false narrative,\u201d Friedman said in a social media post. \u201cWell played Ro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several other pro-Israel advocates echoed that take.<\/p>\n

Attacks on US citizens<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military and settler presence in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law.<\/p>\n

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2024 that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza, is unlawful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsraeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,\u201d the top United Nations tribunal said.<\/p>\n

Israeli settlers \u2013 often under the protection of the Israeli military \u2013 regularly attack Palestinian communities in the West Bank, ransacking farms and property and assaulting people who come in their way. That includes Americans.<\/p>\n

One year ago, for instance, Israeli settlers beat 20-year-old US citizen Sayfollah Musallet<\/a> to death.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, another American citizen, a father of five from Chicago named Khamis Ayyad<\/a>, was also killed in a settler attack.<\/p>\n

No suspects have been charged with crimes after the two attacks.<\/p>\n

Despite well-documented abuses against US citizens, Israel was added to the US visa waiver programme<\/a> in 2023, allowing Israelis to travel visa-free to the US.<\/p>\n

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US military aid in history, having received more than $21bn<\/a> in the last two years alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As rights advocates decry the detention of United States Congressman Ro Khanna by armed Israeli settlers, Israel and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,44,43,238,1032,1156],"class_list":["post-538308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}