Huckabee disputes Khanna account of Judea and Samaria stop

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has pushed back on Rep. Ro Khanna’s account of a recent incident in Judea and Samaria, saying that the U.S. Embassy had no advance notice of the California Democrat’s visit and disputing elements of his claim.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Huckabee said embassy officials were contacted only after Khanna’s vehicle was stopped.

The envoy on Tuesday retweeted video of the incident in which the congressman was briefly stopped in a restricted military zone.

“The left-wing activist who set up this stunt says ‘The embassy is involved.’ That is NOT TRUE. We did NOT know a member of Congress was coming. We would have said don’t go to restricted zone. As FACTS come out, it’s not helping the desired narrative. Not ‘held at gunpoint,’” Huckabee wrote in the Tuesday post.

Responding to Khanna directly in Wednesday’s post, Huckabee said he condemns all violence, “whether Israeli to Palestinian or Palestinian to Israeli,” and suggested the lawmaker’s visit presented a one-sided view of the situation. He invited Khanna to return for meetings with Israelis and Palestinians, including a visit to Hadassah Medical Center and a security briefing, to counter claims of “apartheid” and “genocide.”

Khanna, in his own post, said Israeli authorities later clarified the area was not restricted and that U.S. embassy officials were informed of the trip. He credited Deputy Chief of Mission David Brownstein with helping ensure the delegation’s safety and called for action against “extreme settlers” he said had blocked Americans.

However, the IDF has confirmed to JNS that the site was indeed a restricted military zone. It was originally declared a closed military zone (CMZ) in February 2025, and the order was extended on Dec. 31, 2025 into 2027, according to documents obtained by JNS. Both orders apply specifically to Israeli nationals.

Khanna and his delegation were on their way out of the area when armed civilians (later identified as IDF reservists on leave), blocked their path and alerted authorities to their presence, according to the IDF. Troops responding to the call were initially unaware that the area was a CMZ, and did not know who was in the vehicle, the military told JNS. After investigating the situation, they allowed the delegation to pass after they assessed that there was no threat posed of any kind, according to the IDF.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter on Tuesday accused Khanna of orchestrating a “cheap, anticipated provocation.”

Khanna, who is facing backlash at home after supporting a Maine Senate candidate with a Nazi tattoo who dropped out after being accused of rape, said on Saturday that he had been detained by “settlers” during a trip to Israel.

“Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me and other Americans on my trip to Palestine,” he said. (The United States does not recognize an independent state of “Palestine.”)

“When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers and continued our detention,” Khanna said in the social media post, in which he shared a four-second video. “They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon.”

Khanna, who has accused the Jewish state of committing “genocide,” told The New York Times that it was “not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates.”