Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) sat down for an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program, where he went on a huge rant about being arrested and detained in Israel, attempting to further the anti-Israel rhetoric being primarily pushed by radical leftists inside and outside of the federal government. The interview started with host Kristen Welker asking Khanna about the incident.
“I do want to ask you because you just returned from a three-day trip to the West Bank this week. You say you were held by Israeli settlers with rifles. We do have some still footage that was captured by your team of the incident,” Welker said. The screen then cuts to a series of still images taken as screenshots from video footage of settlers detaining Khanna.
“We should say in the statement, the Israeli Defense Forces or the IDF, released a statement saying 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. Walk us through that experience,” Welker finished.
Khanna started off already in meltdown mode, accusing the IDF of lying in their statement on the matter. “The IDF is lying. What happened was unprecedented. 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,” the congressman claimed.
He then gets into the nitty-gritty of what went down, saying they were detained for 20 minutes. “We were detained for about 20 minutes, fearful of our lives. Then the IDF comes, four soldiers. They tell our translator that they’re on the side of the settlers. They further detain us and block us in,” Khanna recounted to Welker.
Khanna said that he and his crew then called the American embassy, where he spoke with David Brownstein who assisted him in the situation. “We had to call the American embassy. Fortunately, David Brownstein helped, and he got to someone in Israel in 75 minutes after the detention by the IDF soldiers and by these settlers, we were let through,” the California Democrat said.
“Now I heard the prime minister, and here’s he says that Israel is a country of law and order. Well, let me be very specific: the prime minister needs to open an investigation on these violent settlers who are connected to Yinon Levy, who has destroyed Zenuda’s village and is a known person who has killed Palestinians, and these settlers were connected to him,” Khanna added.
"*" indicates required fields
Khanna then told Welker that he believes the settlers need to be criminally prosecuted, along with Yinon Levy. “They need to be prosecuted, including Yinon Levy. Their outpost needs to be investigated, and he needs to have an investigation of these four IDF officers. Security cameras can see that they were involved in the detention of American citizens. How dare they mistreat people with an American passport that way,” Khanna huffed, closing out the interview.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video