U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya to meet Palestinian Americans following a surge of settler attacks, labeling perpetrators as terrorists while local residents and municipal officials pushed back on his characterization of the violence as the work of only a few individuals.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee Visits Turmus Ayya Amid West Bank Unrest
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday met with Palestinian Americans, including relatives of U.S. citizens killed by Israeli settlers, in a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank that has been the target of Israeli settler attacks. The visit comes as settler violence, and what is widely perceived as the Israeli government’s inaction, has increasingly drawn international condemnation, including from U.S. allies. Israeli settlers regularly attack Palestinian communities in the occupied territory, taking their crops or livestock or seeking to force them off their land.
The Israeli government has condemned settler violence, though perpetrators are rarely arrested and even less frequently prosecuted. Washington has not criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over the violence, though it has called for perpetrators to be prosecuted. Huckabee has labelled perpetrators of settler violence as terrorists. Huckabee described his meeting in Turmus Ayya, where most of the town’s Palestinian residents are U.S. citizens, as constructive.
While Huckabee, a Baptist minister and longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, has previously called for violent settlers to be prosecuted, he also says he believes they represent a minority of the settler community, which numbers around 750,000. Around 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, with tens of thousands estimated to be American citizens. Israel has occupied the Palestinian territory since 1967. Palestinians in the West Bank have faced a surge in settler violence while their freedoms have been increasingly curtailed under military occupation since Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, came to power in late 2022.
Netanyahu’s government has been ramping up approval of new settlements, which are illegal under international law, ahead of the October 27 elections. Despite Huckabee’s dismissal of violent settlers, the prime minister has brought into his government far-right ministers who have openly mused about expelling the Palestinian population. Huckabee also denied that Israel was planning to force Palestinians out of Gaza, after Israeli ministers spoke of a plan to expel them en masse. In Turmus Ayya, Palestinians are facing what Mayor Nawwaf Zaghoul said were constant settler attacks. About 80 percent of the Palestinian town’s residents hold U.S. citizenship, he said.
Criminal Behaviour and Terrorism in the Occupied Territory
Israeli settlements have been established around the town, including Shiloh, which Huckabee has visited twice since 2025. Huckabee, the first evangelical Christian to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel, refers to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, a biblical term for the region. During his visit, Huckabee told reporters in Turmus Ayya that it was in the Israeli government’s interest to take action against those carrying out criminal behaviour and terrorism. He asserted that a tiny group of little marauders numbering a few hundred people were damaging the country’s reputation. Huckabee also noted that he had informed Palestinian Americans that the U.S. embassy had no power or authority to take action, and could only seek to influence and call attention to issues that the U.S. government believed needed to be corrected.
Local officials sharply disputed the ambassador’s numerical assessment. Yasser Alkam, a Palestinian American and a municipality spokesperson, argued that thousands of settlers, not merely hundreds, were actively carrying out violence against Palestinians. Alkam told reporters that Washington retains leverage to demand accountability.
The United States does have the power to pressure Israel at least arrest these settlers, which are known to the authorities. They can identify them, one by one, and arrest them, if they want to, with the right amount of pressure from the United States embassy and the United States administration.
Netanyahu Condemnation and Unrest in Qusra
The diplomatic visit coincided with parallel unrest in the West Bank village of Qusra. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned criminal acts by a handful of rioters
in the occupied West Bank that he said do injustice to the law-abiding settler public.
His statement follows over two weeks of unrest in the town of Qusra, where settlers have surrounded several homes including one owned by a Palestinian American. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists,” a word U.S. officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants. Earlier on Saturday, Israel’s military and police said Israeli rioters arrived in the Qusra area and violent clashes followed. They said dozens of rioters barricaded themselves in a Palestinian home while residents were inside. They said the groups were separated and rioters’ vehicles were confiscated. The Associated Press saw ambulances carry away injured Palestinians. Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi told AP that two inhaled tear gas and two others were hurt when settlers threw stones. He said the house targeted was no longer under siege.
