TURMS AYA, WEST BANK – U.S. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with a U.S.-made rifle during a visit to the West Bank this week, has openly reflected on the human cost of the Israeli occupation as he considers running for president in 2028.
Speaking to Reuters from a Palestinian village on July 9, Khanna said his group’s van was surrounded by settlers with M4 rifles the previous day while sightseeing in a part of the southern West Bank where residents frequently face attacks from settlers.
“We were in a village that the Israeli settlers had destroyed, destroyed the school, destroyed the village, and we just watched,” said Khanna, a California progressive and congressman.
“Then these thugs come with machine guns – American-made M4 machine guns – and detain us. They block the roads. And they call the[Israel Defense Forces]and the IDF is on their side, not on the Americans’ side,” Khanna said.
Khanna’s aide Cameron Kasky, who was part of the group, said they were held for more than an hour before seeking help from the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Kasky said a group of officers, believed to be police, eventually intervened and released him.
The Israeli military said its military and police officers intervened after reports that settlers were blocking vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian settlement whose residents were forcibly displaced by violent settler raids after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023.
“Upon arrival, the military dispersed the Israeli civilians and allowed the vehicles to proceed,” the military said.
Israeli police and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Democratic Party split over Israel’s actions
Khanna is the second Democratic lawmaker the White House is considering visiting the region this week. In Tel Aviv on July 8, Rahm Emanuel, former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, said Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians were undermining support for the U.S.-Israel alliance.
When asked if he would run for president, Khanna said, “I am strongly considering it, and after this visit I am even more determined to consider it.”
Israel’s actions against the Palestinians have emerged as a flashpoint in Democratic politics ahead of November’s U.S. midterm elections, contributing to the primary defeats of some incumbent lawmakers who were targeted by left-wing challengers who accused them of supporting Israel’s right-wing government.
Israel’s favorability ratings among Democrats fell from 59% in 2018 to 22% in May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Israel has long enjoyed strong bipartisan support in the United States, but a growing number of Democrats in Congress are now calling for an end to military aid. Military aid, amounting to $3.8 billion annually, includes funding for light weapons such as the M4 rifle and anti-missile equipment used by Israel in the Iran war.
Looking out over a valley dotted with settler outposts on the outskirts of Tulums Aiya, a village home to thousands of dual Palestinian-American citizens, Khanna said he believed the party’s establishment was “ignorant about what a moral test Palestine, Gaza and Israel are.”
He said he decided to visit only the West Bank on a Palestinian-led program to see the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war as it was.
“If you’re not willing to speak out for Palestinian human rights, if you’re not willing to speak out against genocide in Gaza, against apartheid in the West Bank, then you’re morally compromised,” Khanna said.
Israel denies claims that it committed genocide in Gaza or instituted an apartheid regime in the West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Jewish settlers.
Most countries and the United Nations consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on the transfer of civilians to occupied territory.
Israel rejects that position and maintains that the West Bank is a disputed territory where there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years. Palestinians consider the West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, part of the Palestinian state.
Support among Republicans remains strong, but some in President Donald Trump’s coalition have also called for an end to aid.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Howard Goller)
