Israel and U.S. officials are disputing Rep. Ro Khanna’s account of being detained by Israeli settlers during his trip to the West Bank last week.
The California Democrat said Saturday that the U.S. Embassy and Israeli government were aware of his trip ahead of time — a detail that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter refuted.
Mr. Huckabee said Wednesday, “We did NOT know a member of Congress was coming” and added on social media,
“The left-wing activist who set up this stunt says ‘The embassy is involved.’ That is NOT TRUE. We would have said don’t go to restricted zone. As FACTS come out, it’s not helping the desired narrative. Not ‘held at gunpoint.’”
Mr. Leiter said Monday on SiriusXM’s “Cuomo Mornings” that “no guns were pointed at him,” adding, “It’s a characterization far beyond what actually took place.”
Mr. Khanna said that while he was touring the West Bank in a van, armed Israeli settlers surrounded his people and detained them. His detention came after visiting a Palestinian village called Khirbet Zanuta in the southern West Bank.
In a Sunday interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Mr. Khanna said the Israeli military is “lying.”
“What happened was unprecedented,” he said. “They had violent settlers detain American citizens, including an American government official. You had these settlers brandishing M4s, kicking the tires of our van, laughing at us, mocking at us, videotaping us. We were detained for about 20 minutes, fearful of our lives.”
After Mr. Khanna’s team contacted the U.S. Embassy and waited for Israel Defense Forces to arrive, the soldiers sided with the settlers and moved a car to block the road, the congressman said.
The IDF said in a statement that it arrived quickly, dispersed the Israeli civilians and reopened the road, but its soldiers “did not take part in blocking the road.”
Mr. Khanna and his team were eventually released after communication between the U.S. Embassy and a high-level Israeli official.
He called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open an investigation into “these violent settlers who are connected to Yinon Levi,” referring to the settler charged in February with the fatal shooting of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen.
“How dare they mistreat people with an American passport that way?” Mr. Khanna added.
Mr. Netanyahu said on “Meet the Press” that he does not want “vigilantes of any kind.”
“And we are working to put them under the law. But I think if we put things in perspective, we should see that we have thousands of attacks,” he said. “And some, few, but obvious breaking of the law, then we apply the full measure of the law against them. Israel, unlike our neighbors, is a democracy and a country of laws, and we act against those who break the law.”
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