Armed Israeli occupiers assaulted US Congressman Ro Khanna, a vocal critic of Israeli settlement policies, and briefly detained him earlier this week in the occupied West Bank, Israeli and US media reported on Saturday.
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 quoted Khanna as saying he was detained for more than an hour in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank after occupiers blocked his path and prevented him from continuing his visit.
The New York Times reported that Khanna was detained for about 90 minutes when the occupiers surrounded his delegation’s vehicle and prevented it from leaving the abandoned Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta in Hebron.
Khanna said he felt frightened and powerless during the incident, as illegal occupiers shouted insults and blocked his team from leaving.
"They were carrying American weapons. They detained me and damaged my vehicle," the channel quoted Khanna as saying.
Khanna said the Israeli soldiers who arrived did not step in to resolve the situation but instead spoke with the occupiers before temporarily blocking the road themselves.
“I felt powerless in that situation, which is not an easy thing, as I have a lot of privilege in life,” said Khanna, who was eventually allowed to continue his journey after calls to the US Embassy and Israeli police.
“Imagine how people feel every day, Palestinians under the occupation, if they could make an American congressperson feel powerless for 90 minutes.”
Khanna described the incident as the most alarming part of a three-day West Bank trip.
His visit reflects a broader shift among progressive Democrats like Khanna, who increasingly use visits to the occupied West Bank to highlight Palestinian rights rather than reaffirm support for Israel, a contrast with past presidential hopefuls, said the Times.
At around the same time, Israel police said, according to the same broadcaster, a news crew from US network CNN was also attacked in the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.
According to a police statement, occupiers surrounded the crew's vehicle and damaged it, including puncturing its tires.
Police claimed officers arrived at the scene and detained several occupier suspects, adding that they found sharp tools and clubs in their possession.
Telling Palestinian stories to Americans
Khanna said the trip strengthened his commitment to making Palestinian rights central to his political agenda and any future presidential campaign.
“I have something unique to offer about the injustices of Palestinians,” he told The New York Times. “I’m going to go to every corner of America, regardless of whether I run (for president) or not, and tell their stories and tell the story of what is happening in the West Bank.”
The visit came amid intensified violence by occupiers following Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
During the same period, Democratic presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel criticized the Israeli government in a speech at Tel Aviv University and called for ending US military aid.
Growing Democratic criticism of Israel has made the issue increasingly significant ahead of the 2028 presidential race.
Khanna, who previously visited Israel as part of bipartisan delegations, now argues that Palestinian rights deserve greater attention and has called for ending US military support, including for the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Call for 2-state solution
He said his time in the West Bank convinced him that achieving a two-state solution would require confronting occupier violence and removing extremist occupiers.
“One of the things it’s made me realize is how hard a two-state solution is going be in practice, that it’s going require the removal of a lot of violent settlers,” he said. “The on-the-ground reality is so much more brutal and hard and difficult.”
During the trip, Khanna met Palestinian officials, business owners, activists, and families across several communities.
He visited the family of Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, and met residents who described restrictions on movement, violence and intimidation by occupiers.
Khanna, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Punjab, India, said the trip also made him more conscious of his own identity.
“In Palestine, I felt first as someone who was brown,” he said. “We really saw the apartheid-like conditions, the inequality.”
He added: “No American would support this if they knew the details of what was going on here.”
Inspired by discussions with journalist Jasper Nathaniel, the trip was designed to provide what Khanna called an "uncurated," "Palestinian-led" view of life in the West Bank.
Khanna concluded by saying more members of Congress should witness conditions there firsthand and offered a pointed message to the Israeli government.
“Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates,” he said. “Not how you’re going to build good will with the next American president, whoever that is.”
