Machine Gun-Toting Israeli Settlers Detain Ro Khanna During Trip to Occupied West Bank

Conor here: The following write-up leaves out important details. Rep. Ro Khanna says the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived at the scene and proceeded to arrest him, which is not surprising given their documented cooperation with the settlers.

Israeli settlers, showing Americans making M4s, detained me and other Americans on my trip to Palestine.

When the IDF arrived, they accompanied the settlers and we continued our arrest.

They made a big mistake.

You will hear more soon. pic.twitter.com/4z50Ye4I7K

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) July 11, 2026

Meanwhile, as the IDF participates in the intimidation of a member of the American Congress, its allies are determined to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2027, which authorizes military and intelligence cooperation with Israel. The US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative is poised to give Israel exclusive access to US military technology unavailable to any other country in the world. It would give the Zionists the power to control US foreign policy and make Washington more dependent on Israeli military control technology.

Additionally, a provision of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2027 requires the executive branch to “expand and enhance intelligence sharing with the Government of Israel,” and makes it difficult to reduce or eliminate such cooperation down the road.

So what exactly does it mean to successfully combine spook operations with the military and the comfortable world that infuriates America’s representatives?

By Brad Reed, staff writer for Common Dreams. Originally published in Common Dreams.

Rep. Ro Khanna was this week arrested by a group of Israeli settlers who he described as “hoodlums… with big guns” while visiting a Palestinian village in the West Bank.

In an interview with Reuters published on Saturday, Khanna (D-Calif.) said he and his tour group were surrounded by armed residents as they passed through the West Bank on Wednesday.

“We were in a village that was destroyed by Israeli settlers, they destroyed the school, they destroyed the house, we were just watching,” said Khanna. “And these criminals come with big guns—M4, an American-made machine gun—and they shut us down. They block the road.”

The California Democrat said the settlers called in members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to help them confront him and his group.

“The IDF is on their side,” Khanna noted, “not on the side of the Americans.”

Cameron Kasky, Khanna’s assistant, told Reuters that the group was held for more than an hour before officials believed to be police intervened and secured their release.

The IDF told Reuters that soldiers and police dispersed settlers who had set up a roadblock near the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta.

Khanna was not the only American to encounter Israeli settlers this week, as CNN reported that four settlers attacked groups of journalists, including CNN reporters and staff, who were traveling in the northern Palestinian city of Ramallah on Saturday.

While the journalists were driving, four settlers blocked the road with their cars and started attacking the journalists’ cars with wooden sticks and irons.

“The settlers then started jumping into the car behind CNN’s—which was carrying another group of reporters—and smashed the windshield of that car,” the network reported. “Another group of settlers tried to block a different route before chasing the journalists towards the town of Sinjil.”

Israeli police arrived at the scene of the incident and arrested four immigrants suspected of being the ones behind the attack, CNN reported.

“The Israeli police and the IDF take a serious view of any manifestation of violence or damage to property,” Israeli officials said after the arrest, “especially if it affects the media doing their job.”

Israeli settlers have been attacking Palestinians living in the West Bank for years, and witnesses have often described IDF soldiers at the scene as standing by or helping the attackers.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said claims of settler violence were “unprecedented,” describing the attack as being carried out by a handful of “violent people.”