accused<\/a> of rape, said on Saturday that he had been detained by \u201csettlers\u201d during a trip to Israel.<\/p>\n\u201cIsraeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me and other Americans on my trip to Palestine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The United States does not recognize an independent state of \u201cPalestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that the incident occurred on Wednesday, when it received a report that Israeli civilians were \u201cunlawfully blocking the vehicles of foreign nationals and members of the media in the area of Khirbet Zanuta, within the Judea Regional Brigade.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon receiving the report, IDF troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road. The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking the road,\u201d the military said in a statement to JNS. \u201cThe identity of the armed individual is currently under review.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the Israel Police, whose officers joined IDF troops at the scene, told JNS that Khanna\u2019s group had entered a closed military zone and was stopped by soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy law, civilian access to these areas is prohibited for safety and security reasons,\u201d police said, adding that officers \u201cwitnessed no violence at the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA review of body-worn camera footage confirms that the group leader was explicitly warned by officers, as this was not his first time violating the closed military zone order. He was issued a final warning that any future violations would result in immediate arrest,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe tour participants were briefed on the military order and were allowed to leave the restricted area.\u201d<\/p>\n
JNS also sought comment from the Israeli government and the congressman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers and continued our detention,\u201d Khanna said in a social media post, in which he shared a four-second video. \u201cThey made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to a comment from a co-founder of Democratic Majority for Israel, Khanna said, \u201clet\u2019s put politics aside.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you join in calling for the arrest of the settlers who threatened us with M4 guns and of the four IDF soldiers, who aided them in detaining American citizens?\u201d the congressman said. \u201cSurely we can agree that threatening holders of an American passport should have consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khanna\u2019s colleague Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) wrote that the congressman\u2019s post \u201csounds like another plea for publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything to get in front of the camera,\u201d Murphy wrote. \u201cWhy else would you be there? It isn\u2019t your country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other colleagues, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of Israel\u2019s harshest critics in Congress, came to Khanna\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n
Omar called the incident \u201cabsolutely vile\u201d and said that American tax dollars were being used to \u201cterrorize Palestinians and U.S. citizens\u201d and that the Jewish state is a \u201cgenocidal apartheid regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khanna, who has accused Israel of commiting \u201cgenocide,\u201d told the New York Times that it was \u201cnot a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 11, 2026 \/ JNS) Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is facing backlash at home after supporting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-395586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}