Ro Khanna’s ‘Video Evidence’ He Was Detained By the IDF Shows the Exact Opposite

(Screengrab via X)

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) sparked a firestorm of controversy over the weekend when he claimed he was “detained” by violent Israeli settlers, assisted by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. During a contentious Fox News interview on Monday, Khanna was pressed hard on the facts surrounding his detention, including whether or not he was trying to pass through a restricted military zone without having coordinated his trip with local officials.

Khanna repeatedly said that the IDF and the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. were lying about the circumstances of his so-called detention and pointed Fox News viewers “to watch the videos that came out today” to see what happened to him.

“There’s a body cam video for one minute and 30 seconds by an Israeli citizen, Nadav Weiman,” Khanna added, saying it shows the IDF allowing his detention by the settlers.

And just as Khanna said, Weiman did indeed release a clip from his bodycam video, claiming it showed the detention. “The IDF is lying about the detention of Rep. Khanna,” Weiman wrote, adding:

I was on the ground with him that day, and my body camera captured us being detained by both settlers and Israeli soldiers. The IDF did not disperse the violent settlers, as they claim. They explicitly sided with them.

The only issue, at no point does the video show the IDF or the Israeli settlers detaining Khanna or anyone he is with – including progressive activist and failed congressional candidate Cameron Kasky. Settlers are clearly blocking the road ahead of Khanna’s minibus, and the video evidence does not dispute (or verify) his claims that the settlers kicked his tires and cursed him. But the video, which Khanna points to as the main evidence of his detention, certainly shows no such thing.

In the clip, Weiman, who is the executive director of the anti-IDF NGO Breaking the Silence, goes up to a young female IDF officer and, in a polite exchange, asks that the IDF remove the settlers from the road. The soldier says she would like to wait for the local police to come and deal with them as Weiman protests, saying that the inconvenience will make the congressman late.

Weiman claims to the two IDF officers that the U.S. Embassy had cleared Khanna to proceed, a claim that the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said on Monday is not true. “He did not coordinate his visit with either the U.S. or the Israeli government,” Huckabee told SiriusXM radio. Another person in the video says that the police had already told Weiman that he was restricted from accessing the road.

The IDF said in a statement that they did eventually clear the road: “Earlier this week (Wednesday), a report was received regarding Israeli civilians who were unlawfully blocking the vehicles of foreign nationals and members of the media in the area of Khirbet Zanuta, within the Judea Regional Brigade. Upon receiving the report, IDF troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road. The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking the road.”

The IDF’s version of events is similar to what the local police told the media. “Police said by the time officers arrived, IDF soldiers had halted the tour group’s progress in the restricted zone,” reported NBC News on the Israeli Police statement, adding:

Police said officers witnessed no violence during the confrontation, but said the tour group’s leader was warned he could be arrested. Tour participants were told civilians are not allowed there and then released, police said.

“A review of body-worn camera footage confirms that the group leader was explicitly warned by officers, as this was not his first time violating the Closed Military Zone order,” police said. “He was issued a final warning that any future violations would result in immediate arrest.”

While there is no doubt that Israeli settlers are carrying out atrocities against Palestinians living in the West Bank, Khanna’s story simply is not the drama he wants it to be and appears to simply be political grandstanding.

At most, Khanna and his allies are stretching the term “detained,” which usually involves some kind of physical restriction being imposed, to mean his minibus was not allowed to pass into a restricted zone. Anyone who has spent time traveling around Israel, the West Bank, or the Golan Heights knows that traveling in certain areas is heavily restricted, primarily to avoid provocations between the two sides and to also keep civilians and wandering tourists out of danger.

The IDF in this instance was never going to allow a sitting US Congressman to proceed further into an area where he could be attacked, something Khanna and those with him certainly understood. Khanna’s “detention” was the exact response he was hoping to provoke by entering a restricted area without official Israeli chaperones.

Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who helped inspire Khanna’s trip, made a crack on social media to that effect: “If you are an American politician and would like to be held up by machine gun wielding settlers and soldiers, call me.”

Many of Khanna’s critics were also quick to point out that his “detention” in the West Bank came as he was facing an avalanche of criticism over his staunch endorsement of Graham Platner, who dropped his Senate bid after a rape allegation came to light.

While recalling his experience to the New York Times, he couldn’t help but boast of his presidential ambitions, “Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates. Not how you’re going to build good will with the next American president, whoever that is.”

MS NOW columnist Michael Cohen jabbed Khanna over the sheer performative politics of it all, “So Ro Khanna manufactured this event, is according to several Israeli officials lying about what happened, and is trying to blame the entire state of Israel for it – and all because he thinks it’ll help his near-non- existent presidential aspirations with Israel-hating Democrats. The cynicism is off the charts.”

Unfortunately, settler violence in the West Bank should be a bigger topic of conversation in the U.S., and Democrats (and Republicans) who care about the issue should press the Israeli government harder to do a better job of cracking down on settler intimidation of Palestinians. But Khanna’s cynical self-serving trip and “detention” did little to draw attention to the real issues and will only spark a mini newscycle about him and whether or not he was really detained when all he had to do was turn his air-conditioned minibus around.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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