Rep. Ro Khanna snubs former Israeli hostages during Israel trip, then falsely claims he was “detained” while trying to enter a closed military zone.By David Rosenberg, World Israel NewsUS Representative Ro Khanna claimed over the weekend that IDF soldiers and armed Israeli civilians detained him during a visit to Judea, after he attempted to enter a closed military zone.On Saturday, Khanna, a California Democrat, posted a four-second video clip and a photograph showing an Israeli soldier and two civilians outside of a truck that was part of a convoy carrying the delegation which included Khanna.The incident occurred on Wednesday, when the convoy attempted to enter Khirbet Zanuta, an archaeological site in the south Hebron Hills area of Judea, south of Jerusalem.The 49-year-old congressman, a frequent critic of Israel, claimed that the civilians and soldiers who prevented the convoy from entering the site had “detained” them.“Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine,” Khanna wrote.“When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon.”An account of the incident published by The New York Times claimed that the vehicles were blocked for 90 minutes.The IDF disputed Khanna’s assertion that its personnel participated in detaining the delegation.According to the military, soldiers and police were sent after receiving a report that Israeli civilians were blocking foreign nationals and journalists. The IDF said its forces dispersed the civilians and reopened the road.“The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking the road,” the military said.Located in Area C, under full Israeli civil and military control, Khirbet Zanuta is a protected antiquities site which was targeted by Bedouin squatters in the late 1990s.A small illegal Bedouin encampment was established at the site without authorization, leading to years of legal battles which culminated in the outpost’s demolition in 2023.In order to prevent the rebuilding of the illegal encampment and to reduce friction at the site, the IDF has imposed a ban on civilian entry to Khirbet Zanuta.In a statement to Reuters, Khanna referred to the demolished illegal encampment as a “village” which he claimed was “destroyed” by “Israeli settlers.”“We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it.”“And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.”The US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote on his X account that Khanna’s account had left out the “rest of the story,” reposting rebuttals of the congressman’s claims.“Performative outrage stunt,” wrote former US Army Special Forces soldier Jim Hanson. “You purposely had your tour bus try to enter a zone restricted for civilians.”“Local security stopped you & the IDF verified you were not authorized to enter. You were not ‘detained’; you were properly refused entry & your agit prop failed.”“Now you and the NYT are trying to create an incident out of this nothing falafel. Israel is done coddling the terrorists it has been forced to live side by side with for for 75+ years. The lies you have been peddling about the invented ‘Gaza Genocide’ and legitimate IDF military actions against terrorists do not change the facts on the ground.”“Israel has offered peace dozens of times, the Palestinians have offered death and destruction in return. Now they are reaping what they have sown. “Far-right pundit and frequent critic of Israel Tucker Carlson excoriated the ambassador and called for his removal, while denouncing the Israeli civilians involved in the incident as “terrorists.”“An Amercian [sic] member of congress is threatened by foreign terrorists carrying American rifles, backed by a foreign military paid for by American taxpayers, and the US ambassador to that country says not a word in defense of his own countryman, and instead uses his social media accounts to promote his own vapid cable news appearances, which amount to propaganda for that same foreign country,” Carlson wrote on X Saturday night.“It’s too much, too insulting and humiliating to America. This is how revolutions start. For the sake our nation, Mike Huckabee should be removed from his post immediately.”Shortly after Khanna’s post, The New York Post reported that the congressman had refused an offer to meet with Israelis who had been held hostage in the Gaza Strip.Khanna had also reportedly been offered visits with Druze communities, meetings residents of areas near the Gaza border and officials involved in sending humanitarian assistance into Gaza.According to the report, Khanna’s team did not pursue those invitations.The source cited by the report accused the congressman of conducting a one-sided trip focused almost exclusively on Palestinian grievances while considering a potential 2028 presidential campaign.The post Tucker Carlson fumes after anti-Israel congressman falsely claims ‘settlers’ detained him appeared first on World Israel News.