Ro Khanna Grilled In Tense Exchange On Drop Site About Palestinians’ ‘Right’ to Kill Israelis

Screenshot via Social Media

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) spoke to the controversial website Drop Site this week about his recent experience in the West Bank, where he claimed he was detained by violent Israeli settlers. Khanna’s experience has been a flashpoint of controversy as many on the left have rallied behind him while critics have accused him of lying about the circumstances surrounding the incident.

On Tuesday, Khanna tussled with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, online and said that settlers “blockaded” the road, delaying his tour. While much of Khanna’s discussion with Drop Site was friendly between ideological allies, at one point Jeremy Scahill grilled Khanna in a tense exchange on his refusal to endorse Palestinians’ killing of Israeli soldiers.

“Israeli civilians are dying in these attacks because of the apartheid. You know, do Palestinians have a right to kill Israeli soldiers, Congressman? On October 7th, when they attacked the military bases in the Gaza envelope, did the Qassam Brigades and Saraya al-Quds have a right to kill the Israeli soldiers? Yes or no? On October 7th, did Palestinians have a right to attack Israeli military bases in the Gaza envelope? Yes or no?” demanded Scahill, a former editor at the Intercept.

Khanna replied, “I mean, I think October 7th’s attack was a terrorist attack, so I don’t justify it.”

“Was it a terrorist attack? The first targets that were hit on the morning of October 7th were multiple military bases. Did Palestinian forces have a right to attack those military bases?” Scahill demanded of the attack, which targeted over 20 Israeli communities and a music festival.

Khanna replied, “I am not for violence in any way. I mean, I am for making sure that we end the occupation.”

“Do they have a right to do it, Congressman? Do they have a right to attack Israeli soldiers?” Scahill demanded again.

Khanna pushed back, “I’m not going to say that Hamas had a right to attack Israeli soldiers or kill Israelis. I don’t think that advances peace or advances Palestinian statehood.”

Scahill followed up, “Does Israel have a right to drop a single bomb on Gaza in response to October 7th?”

Khanna replied, “I believe Israel had the right to get the people who killed the civilians, but not in the way they went about it, which I’ve said is genocide.”

Scahill then ranted, “The Palestinians don’t have a right to attack the very military bases that are running the killing operations on October 6, 2023, or October 5, 2023? It’s a double standard. You’re saying there are ways that Israel should be able to kill Palestinians, but there is never a condition under which Palestinians can attack armed, uniformed soldiers of a force that is still considered an occupying force under international law. Make it make sense to me.”

“I come from a tradition of King and Gandhi. My father, my grandfather, was in jail for, ” Khanna replied as Scahill cut in, “I’m aware of your family history. Do you think King would say, ‘Well, they can attack the Viet Cong, but I don’t want them to kill?’”

Khanna replied, “I don’t think anyone… I don’t know what Gandhi would say. I don’t think my grandfather would say that the Palestinians should have armed resistance to Israeli occupation. I think they would argue for a much more non-violent approach. But America, I think, in ending aid, in ending military sales, in not being a defender of Israel in the UN, just vetoing resolutions against Israel, would make tremendous progress. I mean, you know, maybe we’re on a scale of one to ten, and you’re at a ten and I’m saying, let’s go to a six, seven, eight. I don’t know where that would be. And right now America’s at a ten.”

Scahill hit back, “We’re at a ten because of a genocide that was enabled, supported, armed, and funded by the United States. And I am baffled as to how you can say that Israel had a right to drop a single bomb on Gaza in response to October 7th, but Palestinians, according to you, have no right whatsoever to ever kill an Israeli, ”

Jeremy Scahill asks Rep. Ro Khanna:

“Do Palestinians have a right to kill Israeli soldiers, Congressman?”

“On October 7, did Palestinians have a right to attack Israeli military bases in the Gaza envelope? Yes or no?”

Watch Khanna’s response in the attached clip. Longer… https://t.co/x05LkvFxgU pic.twitter.com/CmZqgpahBZ

, Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 14, 2026

Below is the rest of their exchange:

Khanna: Palestinians have a right to justice, which is,

Scahill: Do they have a right to armed resistance against Israeli occupation soldiers in uniform? Do they ever have a right to kill an Israeli soldier?

Khanna: I think if it’s self-defense, if they feel there’s an illegal attack on them by a violent settler or by an Israeli soldier, and that’s illegal, in a school or on a civilian, then, of course, they should have justice.

Scahill: But the entire thing is illegal, Representative Khanna, the entire occupation of Gaza, the managing of their diet, the “mowing the lawn,” the constant killing of them. The perspective of many Palestinians is that they’re being collectively punished and they’re fighting for their very existence, and that the bases surrounding Gaza were the primary murderers, on a military level, of the population of Gaza. So what I’m understanding, whether it’s Hamas and Islamic Jihad or independent Palestinians, how is it that you can stand here and in any way justify the Israelis dropping bombs on Gaza, but never find a way in which it’s justifiable for Palestinians to kill an armed soldier of a force that is, under international law, an occupation force? I don’t understand it. Why do we consider this position?

Khanna: Well, I will look at it, but I don’t think that the solution in that area is to encourage it.

Scahill: But you’re afraid of being called pro-Hamas. That’s what this boils down to, because I bet if we were talking off the record, privately, and I said this to you, you would acknowledge that people around the world have a right to resistance by all means necessary.

Khanna: Well, I’ve always been for peaceful resistance, you know.

Scahill: But how is it peaceful resistance to say the Israelis have the right to drop a single bomb?

Khanna: You know, I mean, just like under segregation, I wouldn’t have said, “Go kill the people who are engaged in segregation against you.” I’m much more Dr. King than Malcolm X.

Scahill: Are you? Were slave rebellions justified against people who were raping, hanging, and murdering Africans who had been kidnapped? I’m sorry, I spend most of my day and night talking with Palestinians, working with Palestinians. My colleague, Hossam Shabat, was assassinated by the Israelis, and you’re saying there’s no way they were justified.

Khanna: Most of the Palestinians I’ve met, and maybe a few days’…, aren’t talking about the kind of armed resistance that you are. They just want to live their lives in dignity and peace, and not have the Israeli settlers suppress them.

Scahill: You’re a member of the United States Congress who is justifying, albeit you’ve been very critical of Israel’s war against Gaza, but you seem to be drawing a line that says there are some cases in which Israel is justified in attacking Palestinians, but only those responsible for October 7th. Yet you can’t find a shred of justification for any Palestinian to attack the very armed forces operating under a nation-state flag backed by the United States. You’re saying there is no condition under which a Palestinian has a right to kill soldiers posted at military bases enforcing, by murder and forced starvation and deprivation, an illegal occupation of Gaza. That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t see how you reconcile those two positions.

Khanna: Because I think armed resistance is only going to be ineffective given the power differential. It’s similar to what Gandhi thought in terms of how he took on the British Empire, that having a moral force of civil resistance and appealing to the world’s conscience gives a much better chance of achieving dignity and peace.

Scahill: In 2019, the Palestinians organized the Great March of Return, a mass non-violent mobilization at the gates, walls, and fence of Gaza. And you know what Israeli soldiers did, Representative Khanna? They had a competition over who could shoot the most kneecaps of Palestinians. In fact, the soldiers were later condemned by Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas. So there’s a track record and there’s context. You’re talking about tactical issues, the Palestinians have tried that.

Khanna: I think opinion is shifting now in America, where those kinds of approaches would get a better reception in the United States.

Watch the clip above.

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