A United States congressman was detained at gunpoint by armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank this week, and the Israeli military refused to intervene.
Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, was visiting the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, on July 8 when settlers surrounded his van. The settlers were carrying M4 rifles, American-made weapons.
“We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed; they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” Khanna told Reuters. “And these hoodlums come in with machine guns, M4, an American-made machine gun, and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.”
Khanna’s group was held for more than an hour. His aide, Cameron Kasky, said they appealed to the US Embassy in Jerusalem for help. A group of officers who appeared to be police eventually intervened and secured their release.
The incident is a stark illustration of the reality of the Israeli occupation. Settlers, armed, organized, and protected by the military, operate with impunity. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since the Gaza war began.
Khanna, who has long been critical of Israel and accused the country of genocide in Gaza, did not soften his language. “If you’re unwilling to speak up for Palestinian human rights, if you’re unwilling to speak up against the genocide in Gaza, the apartheid in the West Bank, then you are morally compromised,” he said.
He called on the Israeli government to prosecute the settlers involved. Israel rejects allegations of genocide or apartheid.
The same day, Israel Police arrested four settlers for attacking a CNN news crew near the West Bank village of Sinjil, blocking their vehicle and damaging it. A knife and clubs were found in the suspects’ vehicle.
The Khanna detention comes as he weighs a 2028 presidential run. He said the experience gave him an unfiltered view of the occupation that many of his colleagues in Washington prefer to avoid.
“I believe my party’s establishment is clueless about how much of a moral test Palestine, Gaza and Israel have become,” he said.
Most countries regard Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that Israel’s occupation is unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements. Israel disputes this, calling the West Bank disputed territory.
The question for the US Congress is straightforward: when a sitting US representative is detained at gunpoint by settlers using American-made weapons, and the IDF refuses to help, whose side is the United States on?