A contingent of pro-Palestinian activists committed to ending “settler violence” in Israel helped organize Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) controversial trip to the West Bank, on which the congressman claimed armed “Israeli settlers” unlawfully detained him and his entourage.
Khanna said Saturday that while he was touring the West Bank, a group of “Israeli settlers, brandishing American-made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine.” When Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene, “they sided with the settlers & continued our detention,” Khanna claimed on X.
Khanna further detailed the episode in an exclusive interview with the New York Times, claiming that a caravan of Israeli civilians acting as vigilantes blocked his delegation from leaving a remote village in the West Bank, a disputed territory that Palestinians believe is occupied by Israeli invaders or “settlers.” A photographer for the New York Times accompanied Khanna’s delegation, taking pictures on each leg of the tour for the feature story.
Some critics suspect that Khanna’s trip was a campaign stunt intended to increase the congressman’s popularity, especially among supporters critical of the U.S. alliance with Israel, as he considers a 2028 run for president. The visit, which Khanna described as an “uncurated” yet Palestinian-led glimpse into the war-torn region, seemed aimed at promoting only one side of the conflict.
A source privy to the congressman’s travel plans told the New York Post that Khanna ignored multiple invitations to meet with former hostages of Hamas and Israeli survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, saying, “Congressman Khanna didn’t come to understand the situation — he came looking for a headline.” Khanna’s staff later clarified to Israeli officials that the three-day pilgrimage, which began Wednesday, was a private trip paid for with campaign funds.
Leader of Soros-funded nonprofit group served as Khanna’s tour guide and ‘expert on settler violence’
Body camera footage of the interaction between Khanna’s party and the responding convoy of Israeli soldiers was widely circulated by Nadav Weiman, the trip’s tour guide. Weiman is the executive director of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that publishes testimonials from Israeli military defectors to “expose the public to the daily reality of the occupation and Israeli military rule over the Palestinian civilian population.”
The Israeli military “is lying about the detention of Rep. Khanna,” Weiman posted. “I was on the ground with him that day, and my body camera captured us being detained by both settlers and Israeli soldiers. The [military] did not disperse the violent settlers, as they claim. They explicitly sided with them.”
NETANYAHU BLAMES ‘JUVENILE DELINQUENTS’ FOR BLOCKING KHANNA ON WEST BANK VISIT
Weiman added that he was “there with Rep. Khanna as an expert on settler violence.”
Breaking the Silence has received significant funding from several left-wing U.S. nonprofit groups, including $730,000 from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, one of the primary grantmaking organizations founded by Democratic megadonor George Soros. Tranches of the Open Society grants were earmarked “to support [Breaking the Silence’s] strategy in educating the public about Israeli occupation and exposing violations against Palestinians.”
Khanna and his party are accused of deliberately entering an unstable region, without proper clearance or additional protection, to provoke a response from its inhabitants. Israeli officials say Khanna’s delegation, by failing to communicate with the Israeli military in advance to arrange an escort and appearing not to want one, did not take precautionary measures ahead of the trip before it headed into what was recently a closed military zone. According to Israeli authorities, foreign lawmakers generally give prior notice of such journeys to sensitive areas of Judea and Samaria so that government officials can assess access restrictions and security conditions.
Local law enforcement told the Press Service of Israel that Weiman previously violated the military zone order and had been warned about entering the restricted area.
“He was issued a final warning that any future violations would result in immediate arrest,” police said in a statement to TPS-IL.
Khanna’s trip was planned by anti-Israel activists
Khanna is reportedly fielding advice from two pro-Palestinian activists, who not only helped put the provocative trip together but also are guiding his policy positions and proposed legislation concerning Israel.
Cameron Kasky and Jasper Nathaniel, both outspoken advocates against U.S. military aid to Israel, were the influential forces behind the congressman’s visit.
According to planning details shared with the New York Times, Kasky coordinated the trip while the idea for the excursion grew out of an interview that Khanna gave Nathaniel, an “independent journalist” covering the West Bank from an exclusively pro-Palestinian perspective.
Nathaniel has written extensively about “armed settlers,” spoken to Democracy Now! about “surviving [an] Israeli settler attack,” and appeared on a panel alongside Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions activists.
Kasky, a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor and gun control activist, dropped his own New York congressional campaign in January to work as Khanna’s paid digital strategist, hired to focus specifically on combatting “settler violence” in the West Bank. Kasky made the move to Khanna’s reelection team after he returned from Israel on a pro-Palestinian “solidarity mission” and connected Khanna with some of the same activists he had met on the Palestinian side.
Observers saw that Kasky, a 25-year-old Jewish progressive, brought with him a Gen Z discontent toward Israel popular among his generation that Khanna, who was in need of a reputational rebrand for tiptoeing around going all-in against Israel, could harness.
Last month, Khanna went from being a target of the anti-Israel lobby to earning its endorsement for reelection. Khanna was in the line of fire from Citizens Against AIPAC, a political action committee that runs ad campaigns targeting candidates who accept funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or appear aligned with Israel. Khanna now has an ActBlue donation page through Citizens Against AIPAC after he signed the PAC’s pledge in June promising that he would adopt its positions.
Kasky has compared the conflict in Israel, which he calls “a genocide” against Palestinians, to the fear he experienced during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, demanding “an end to American-made weapons slaughtering children.”
As a Khanna aide specializing in digital strategy, Kasky posted pictures of the West Bank confrontation on social media and shared his images with U.S. press. In an Instagram post, Kasky characterized the West Bank incident as a hostage situation, claiming that the Israeli settlers, armed with American-made guns, held him and Khanna “captive” with the support of the Israeli military.
“To the Palestinian people, thank you for once again being the most generous hosts a human being could imagine,” Kasky wrote. “To the Israeli settler movement, thank you for holding myself and the United States congressman I work for captive using American-made rifles with backing” from the Israeli military.
Nathaniel, who inspired the trip, recounted in a Substack post over the weekend that he had asked Khanna in March if he would take “a Palestinian-led trip” to the West Bank.
“He did, and within a few hours, he was held up by machine gun wielding settlers, and then detained for 90 minutes by soldiers,” Nathaniel wrote. “I’m glad I could help him get an authentic experience.”
According to Nathaniel, he has been advising Khanna’s congressional office on how to approach legislative issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nathaniel disclosed on his Substack blog that Khanna’s team reached out to him in January for input on a House resolution regarding the West Bank, and he told them that “any real change would require a much more radical rethinking of the U.S.-Israel relationship than most Democrats have been willing to entertain.” Khanna then introduced a resolution that condemned “Israeli settlement expansion” and “settler violence” the week of his interview with Nathaniel.
Nathaniel and Khanna have had public exchanges over the congressman’s voting record on Israel. In one instance, Nathaniel called Khanna out on X for voting for a spending bill that included $3.3 billion in security assistance for Israel. Khanna responded quickly, saying House Republicans had “snuck” the pro-Israel provisions into a broader appropriations bill and that he “genuinely did not” know that those items were folded in. When the bill came back amended, Nathaniel said Khanna contacted him privately to clarify that he would be voting no.
“It was clear that he wanted to prove his mettle on the issue,” Nathaniel wrote, “and he agreed to an interview once the House resolution came out.”
In the March video interview, Nathaniel pressed the congressman to take a sharper stance on opposing Israel, arguing that Khanna has to adopt a hard-line approach if he wants to garner the support of the party’s progressive wing as a presidential contender.
Khanna seeking breakout as staunch pro-Palestinian presidential aspirant
Criticism of Israel has increasingly become central to Khanna’s public image over the past few months while he carves out a viable path to the White House. And now with the West Bank incident drawing international attention, Khanna has positioned himself on the front lines of the progressive wing’s fight for Palestinian liberation, standing in stark contrast to other presidential hopefuls in the Democratic Party who are striking a more measured tone on Palestinian statehood.
Khanna told the New York Times that what he witnessed in the West Bank would inform his run for president, should he decide to mount a bid, and that he would make “Palestinian rights” a key focus of his campaign.
“I have something unique to offer about the injustices of Palestinians,” Khanna said. “I’m going to go to every corner of America, regardless of whether I run or not, and tell their stories and tell the story of what is happening in the West Bank.”
Though in the past he has supported Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, Khanna expressed qualms about supporting a partition plan following the trip’s fiasco, pointing to the “violent settlers.”
“One of the things it’s made me realize is how hard a two-state solution is going to be in practice, that it’s going to require the removal of a lot of violent settlers,” Khanna continued. “The on-the-ground reality is so much more brutal and hard and difficult.”
Khanna took a shot at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), another presidential aspirant, on Monday for stopping short of declaring Israel an apartheid state.
“Yes, it is apartheid,” Khanna posted. “This is about the facts on the ground. Anyone who doesn’t understand this reality should go to Palestine in the occupied West Bank & watch the videos we are putting out this week.”
Asked whether he was running for president, Khanna told reporters he is “strongly considering it” and “more resolved” to do so after that Israel trip. In the New York Times interview, Khanna issued parting words to the Israeli government.
“Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates,” he said.
Shortly after publicizing the encounter, Khanna started fundraising off the alleged detainment, using the altercation as part of his appeal to donors.
“If this can happen to an American member of Congress, imagine what life is like for Palestinians who have no smartphones, no security, and no national platform,” Khanna wrote in the email soliciting donations.
The Washington Examiner contacted Khanna’s campaign for comment.