In his last interview with The Times of Israel four years ago, US Rep. Ro Khanna characterized himself as a “pro-Israel progressive,” expressing admiration for the Jewish state’s entrepreneurial prowess.

But the legislator refrained from taking on the label during a phone call on Monday, several days after returning from a trip to the West Bank where he said he was detained by IDF-backed settlers for over an hour.

Asked what led him to change the way he looks at Israel, Khanna faulted what he said has been the “genocide” in Gaza as well as unchecked settler violence in the West Bank.

“After seeing it firsthand, I now view Israel as an occupying power that is engaged in apartheid in the West Bank,” said the California congressman, who is weighing a long-shot run for president in 2028.

Israel rejects both the genocide and apartheid charges, insisting that it has taken steps to avoid civilian casualties and allow aid into Gaza and that it granted limited autonomy to the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s to govern areas of the West Bank where the majority of Palestinians in the territory live.

Khanna clarified that he still supports a two-state solution in which Israel can thrive as a secure, Jewish and democratic state, but he said that the first step toward that goal is reining in settlers like the ones who stopped his convoy from visiting the site of a Palestinian village depopulated by relentless attacks.

Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine. When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: 'Article_Incontent1', baseDivId: 'Article_Incontent1', } ]); }); } They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon. https://t.co/rZw8bRAn64 pic.twitter.com/4z50Ye4I7K — Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) July 11, 2026

Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine.

When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention.

They made a huge mistake.

You will be hearing more soon. https://t.co/rZw8bRAn64 pic.twitter.com/4z50Ye4I7K

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) July 11, 2026

No disciplinary actions against those involved in last week’s incident have been taken, though, and Khanna maintained that this demonstrates the Israeli government’s complicity in settler violence.

“Israel is capable of taking out [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and Hezbollah leaders. The prime minister is out there saying they’re trying to get to ‘150 juvenile delinquents.’ Give me a break. The pictures of these violent settlers who were brandishing guns and harassing us are all over social media. They could get these folks arrested in 10 minutes,” Khanna said. “The fact that they’re not acting is a deliberate choice, and it’s offensive to the Americans who were detained.”

For their part, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and US........

© The Times of Israel