Armed Israeli Settlers in the Occupied West Bank Detain Congressman Ro Khanna

In the occupied West Bank, armed Israeli settlers have carried out a number of attacks in recent days targeting local Palestinians, as well as foreign journalists and even a U.S. congressmember. On Wednesday, armed settlers carrying U.S.-made M4 rifles surrounded a van carrying Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who was visiting a Palestinian village that had been destroyed by settlers. Khanna said his delegation was blocked for about 90 minutes. Rep. Ro Khanna: “I am certainly, probably, the first American politician who’s been detained by the IDF and Israeli settlers. I mean, 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, an 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.” In a separate incident, on Saturday, Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife attacked a group of journalists including CNN’s Jeremy Diamond. One of the journalists posted video of the attack on Instagram. Adele Shoko: “He’s going at our car.” Jasper Nathaniel: “Go. Drive. Drive.” Adele Shoko: “No! No! No!” Jasper Nathaniel: “Drive. Move! Move!” Gabriele Micalizzi: “Move.” Jasper Nathaniel: “Get the [bleep] out of the way! Move! Move! Move!” Gabriele Micalizzi: “Move. Move.” Andrey X: “Drive. Drive. Drive. Drive. Drive.” Jasper Nathaniel: “Move!” Andrey X: “Go. Go. Go.” Jasper Nathaniel: “Watch out! Watch out!” Israel reportedly arrested four individuals in the attack on the journalists. The incident occurred at the same location where a mob of settlers beat U.S. citizen, 20-year-old Saif Musallet to death exactly one year earlier. To date, no one has been arrested for the death of Musallet. www.democracynow.org