ByYONAH JEREMY BOBJULY 12, 2026 20:46US Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by settlers (he made no distinctions between violent settlers and violent Jews living inside the Green Line) armed with US-made rifles during a visit to the West Bank last week, a story which he tweeted out on Saturday.Khanna, who has served California’s 17th district since 2017, is among Congress’s most vocal critics of the Israeli government and has backed legislation that would block offensive or defensive weapons sales to Israel in order to penalize it over what he characterizes as genocide in Gaza.He was in the region last week, meeting with Palestinians, while avoiding meeting with Israeli officials, though he did visit with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2024 as part of a large Congressional delegation.Khanna said his group’s van was surrounded by settlers wielding M-4 rifles, while touring Khirbet Zanuta. whose residents were forcibly displaced by settler raids in December 2024.The official Israeli story essentially concurs with Khanna's story up until this point, and that event, in and of itself, according to Israeli officials, constitutes a grave failure on the Israeli side, in terms of failing to prevent the harassment, and as of press time, failing to detain the settlers involved (though officials do bring statistics that Palestinian terror is far worse.)US Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) is interviewed by Reuters during a visit to Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 9, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)There are significant discrepancies between Khanna's narrative and the IDF'sHowever, moving on into the narrative of the IDF's conduct during the event, there are significant discrepancies.The IDF said that its forces dispersed the settlers who were unlawfully detaining and harassing Khanna and his group.According to military sources who spoke to the Jerusalem Post, it did not detain Khanna in any way, and the US Congressman did not communicate with the IDF before or after his visit, part of how it was even possible that he would be accosted, given that he had no (and clearly wanted no) escort.In addition, the IDF and the Israeli police said that no official complaint has been filed, which would be a basis for them to seek to arrest those involved.Rep. Khanna responded to an inquiry from the Post about the incident, saying, “The Israeli government is lying to cover up for 4 IDF soldiers who aided violent settlers brandishing M4 guns and threatening American lives. I am calling for their arrest and prosecution.”A spokeswoman for Khanna then referred the Post to Nadav Weiman, who helped run Khanna's tour of the area.According to the account told to the Post by Weiman, who is also the Executive Director of Breaking the Silence, a group which says it aims "to expose the public to the daily reality of the occupation and Israeli military rule over the Palestinian civilian population in the territories…we all agree that the occupation cannot be a solution and must be ended, as military rule over a civilian population can never be moral or humane," there were two primary offenders among the settlers, one man who held an M4 with a silencer, and one who had a handgun.Weiman passed on the name of the man holding the handgun to the Post, and the Post requested from the police and the IDF whether they had identified or were pursuing the individual, as well as tried to reach the individual for a response.During the time when just the two cars of settlers were blocking Khanna's group from leaving the area with their two vehicles, about 20 minutes passed, according to Weiman.Weiman called the Israeli Police while Khanna's team called the US embassy for assistanceSimultaneously, Weiman and some of the other travelers called the Israeli police for assistance, while Khanna or his staff called the US embassy for assistance.Interestingly enough, Weiman said that it was the settlers who called the IDF officials who ended up arriving at the scene after 20 minutes.Next, Weiman said that the IDF soldiers present, including a contingent of relatively right-wing sounding female soldiers, were present and blocking Khanna from leaving the area for another 40 minutes.Further, Weiman said that none of the IDF soldiers approached Khanna to discuss the situation or clarify who he was.Rather, Weiman said that the only interaction came when he exited his car and approached the soldiers to ask for their help, including informing them of Khanna's status as a prominent US official, to which they reacted dismissively.Moreover, Weiman stated that none of the soldiers came to speak to Khanna or assisted him in any way to leave the area from which the settlers had blocked his exit.In addition, Weiman conveyed to the soldiers that the police headquarters was telling the IDF soldiers to let Khanna and his entourage leave the area.Next, Weiman said that the IDF soldiers said they would not receive instructions from the police headquarters, rather only from a police officer who would arrive in-person on the scene.About two minutes before a police officer finally arrived on the scene, the settlers suddenly rushed to jump back into their cars and raced away, said Weiman.Police, IDF arrive on the sceneThe police officer then came on the scene, and Weiman said he briefly took two minutes to take the details of Khanna and his entourage, and then ordered the IDF to move their vehicles so that the American official could leave the scene.While Weiman did not know for sure, he estimated that the IDF soldiers had warned the settlers that a policeman was about to arrive so that they would have time to escape.Questioned about whether Khanna and his entourage were improperly in a closed military zone without coordination and clearance, Weiman responded that this was turning justice upside down.He said that the area was only declared a closed military zone to prevent violent Jewish extremists from coming into the area after those same extremists had harassed the Palestinian village there so severely that those Palestinians had abandoned their land.Accordingly, Weiman said that outsiders visiting the abandoned village to draw scrutiny to the violations of those same settlers could not constitute a violation of any kind.Weiman has also promised to send on additional video footage of the incident, but said he was working through various technical problems to be able to share the footage at press time.While the police and IDF, as noted above, issued initial responses to Khanna and his entourage's initial narrative, at press time, neither had provided an updated response to the more detailed account which the Post received on Sunday. 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