Andrey Ilyich Khrzhanovskiy (Russian: Андре́й Ильи́ч Хржано́вский; born May 2, 1998),[1][2][3][4] known online as Andrey X, is a Russian-Israeli journalist and activist against Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. He has gained prominence during the Gaza war.
In Saint Petersburg, he worked in an organization assisting people on the autism spectrum.[7] Having quit public schooling at the age of 14, he earned his high school degree at 16 and moved to Scotland, attending Gordonstoun to fullfil the requirements to enter a British university.[7][9] After spending a year learning about Buddhism and practicing kung fu at the Shaolin Monastery in China,[9] he graduated in Anthropology from University College London, with a dissertation focusing on the politics of post-Soviet countries–for which he spent some time in Transnistria.[6][7][9] He started his career as a journalist writing for Russian anti-government publications like Meduza, Novaya Gazeta, Doxa and Discours.[9]
Activism
Khrzhanovskiy was visiting his grandparents in Israel in February 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began; he chose to stay there, fearing potential persecution for his activity as a political journalist.[3][4][7][10][11] Taking advantage of his Jewish heritage, he applied for Israeli citizenship in accordance with the Law of Return and was granted a passport in a short time, allowing him to settle in Tel Aviv.[9][10][11] Although initially little informed about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Khrzhanovskiy said his interactions with Israelis and 1948 Palestinians quickly made him realize he was benefiting from the privileged side of an apartheid system, and felt compelled to "do something about it."[3][4][7][10][12] He has mainly attributed this to exchanges with two people: a real estate agent telling him that "Netanya is a very good place to live in because the mayor doesn't allow Arabs to rent apartments;"[12] and the owner of a Jaffa café where he worked being forced to visit his family in Jordan, who was expelled in 1948 and has since been prohibited from entering Israel.[4][7][12]
Following a firsthand encounter with a settler in the South Hebron Hills, as well as the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023 and the subsequent escalation of settler and state violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, including military raids, Khrzhanovskiy joined local human rights organizations and started documenting the incursions on social media, particularly in the village of Ras al-Auja[3][4][10] by the Hilltop Youth.[7] He also co-founded the activist and media company Kompas (Компас), providing Russian-language coverage of the West Bank.[3][7][9] Khrzhanovskiy claims that Israelis enjoy "endemic impunity" to commit human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing against locals, and maintains that only international pressure or direct intervention like UN peacekeeping missions can stop it.[4][10][12] According to his testimony, when Palestinians or international activists–himself included–are victims of settler assaults and report to the Israeli police, they are the ones to get arrested on those charges instead.[10] In the summer of 2024, when he was at the Auja spring, Israeli settlers hit him on the head with a stick, piercing his eardrum.[10]
The following October, Khrzhanovskiy and four other journalists were stopped on their way to Nablus and taken to a military base, where they were reportedly blindfolded, beaten and held for hours in the sun, with authorities charging his colleague Jeremy Loffredo of The Grayzone of "aiding the enemy during wartime" after he had reported on the landing of an Iranian missile on the Nevatim Airbase.[13][14] Due to Loffredo's association with a pro-Russian outlet, Khrzhanovskiy was expelled from the Kompas collective for failing to adhere to their values, "the main one of which is the rejection of any imperialism, including Russian." He commented his agreement to accompany Loffredo as "a massive mistake and gross unprofessionalism on my part."[14]
On 12 December 2024, Khrzhanovskiy was forcibly abducted by the Israeli police in Tel Aviv and taken to a station in Sderot. The stated reason was to arrest him for "vandalism" over a video he had posted two weeks earlier, where he was seen placing a "Free Palestine" sticker on a lookout point in Sderot, used by Israelis to watch the bombing of the Gaza Strip but also claimed to be a memorial for an IDF soldier killed in the Be'eri massacre. His actions were publicly criticized by the Ministry of Construction and Housing of Israel, Yitzhak Goldknopf. Khrzhanovskiy was later released on conditional bail of ₪15,000.[3][8][15] According to him and his lawyers, he was repeatedly beaten and denied any food or water throughout his detention, as well as being refused language support on his trial despite his limited skills in Hebrew.[3][8] He is involved in 13 civil lawsuits with Israeli authorities as of May2025[update]; however, he has denounced the fact that, unlike him, Palestinians are tried in military courts.[3]
As of March2025,[update] Khrzhanovskiy had been living for nine months in the West Bank, moving from village to village every few days.[11] He supports a one-state solution to the conflict.[3] His political positions have been described as "far left",[5][7] with his father calling him "radical left-wing".[6]
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