Where this was said
Ro Khanna Interview: West Bank Detention, Settler Violence, and the Democratic Party's Israel Problem
At 1:19:00 · chapter starts 1:12:10
Ben interviews Ro Khanna about his decision to take a Palestinian-led tour of the West Bank, inspired by Ben's insights and journalist Jasper Nathaniel's embedded reporting. Khanna describes arriving at Zunada Village — destroyed by settler Ynon Levy, whose murder of a Palestinian was caught on camera — when two armed settlers in their early twenties blocked his van. The IDF arrived and sided with the settlers, telling Khanna his group was in an illegal area (the IDF later acknowledged it was not). After 75 minutes, a US embassy career official, David Brownstein, reached the Israeli government and police came to release them. Khanna pointedly notes this has not happened to a US congressman abroad since Leo Ryan's assassination at Jonestown in 1978. Netanyahu responded on Meet the Press by calling the settlers 'juvenile delinquents' — a 150-person fringe, he claimed, among 99.9% law-abiding settlers. Khanna dismantles this framing, recounting Palestinian families terrorized nightly by settlers throwing objects, planting flags on their homes, vandalizing cars; a school shooting where the principal was never asked about the shooter; an American citizen detained for ten months with no trial, released emaciated and scarred. The interview turns to Democratic Party politics: Josh Gottheimer and the DMFI attacked Khanna's character rather than his policies. Khanna reads this as a deliberate strategy to stop other members from visiting the West Bank by making the trip seem illegitimate. He also acknowledges with striking candor that he previously voted for the $3 billion in annual US military aid that contributed to the conditions that led to his own detention. He calls on a future administration to sanction settler banks and construction companies, and set a 100-day deadline for the IDF to arrest named extremist settlers and destroy illegal outposts. He closes on a note of hope: the Palestinian families he met showed his Jewish American colleagues nothing but warmth and no bitterness.
Congressman Ro Khanna's convoy was blocked by armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank and he was held for approximately 75 minutes before a US embassy official secured his release.
Ro Khanna admitted he previously voted for $3 billion in annual US aid to Israel, aid which he says has now been used against Americans and Palestinian Americans in the West Bank.
Khanna noted that the last time a US congressman was detained or shot at abroad was in 1978, when Leo Ryan was killed at Jonestown in Guyana.
Pro-Israel Democrats like Josh Gottheimer and the DMFI attacked Khanna's character rather than his policy — calling the West Bank trip a publicity stunt. Khanna argues this is a deliberate strategy to stop other members from going. But politically, being attacked by AIPAC-aligned groups has become a badge of honor with the progressive base.
In Hebron, Khanna saw shop owners point to netting above their stalls installed to block objects thrown by settlers living above them. When the barricades went up, settlers escalated to urinating and throwing acid. Khanna called it utterly dehumanizing.
Despite living under occupation, the Palestinians Khanna met welcomed him and his Jewish American colleagues with food, hugs, and warmth. No bitterness toward Jewish Americans or Israelis. Khanna says a 25-year-old Parkland survivor pushing him to be stronger on the issue showed him the next generation has it right.
