Huckabee Labels Violent Settler Attacks as ‘Terror’ During Visit to West Bank

America’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has taken his strongest stand to date against violent acts by Israeli settlers during a visit Saturday to meet with mainly Palestinian-American residents in the West Bank.“Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror,” he was quoted as saying at the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya. “When people do it, they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences.”In a transcript posted on his embassy’s X feed, Mr. Huckabee — long an avid supporter of Israel — went on to say that when someone takes over another person’s home, if there are squatters that come in and put up their own flags and take possession of something that does not belong to them; if they burn a car, if they torch a mosque, if they go into someone’s home and vandalize it, paint graffiti on the walls, that’s a criminal act. But it extends beyond a criminal act. It’s an act of terror.”Mr. Huckabee told reporters who accompanied him to the town that it is in Israel’s own interest to act against violent settlers whose excesses have damaged Israel’s reputation around the world. Israeli soldiers are regularly accused of standing by or even assisting settlers in attacks across the West Bank.Referring to the violent settlers, he said, “There may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that’s a few hundred too many.”Residents of Turmus Ayya, about 80 percent of whom are Palestinian-American, have suffered repeated attacks from settlers, leading to the death of an American resident in 2023, the severing of a vital water line, and the painting of graffiti on their homes.Armed settlers are accused of repeatedly driving through the town in off-road vehicles at night, sometimes yelling and shining flashlights into windows, the Guardian has reported.Mr. Huckabee told the residents that his embassy had no power or authority to take action on their behalf and could only seek to influence and call attention to issues of concern, according to a Reuters report from the scene.The agency quoted a Palestinian American municipality spokesman, Yasser Alkam, challenging the ambassador’s suggestion that only a few hundred settlers were behind the violence, claiming they number in the thousands.“The United States does have the power to pressure Israel [to] at least arrest these settlers, which are known to the authorities,” Mr. Alkram was quoted as saying. “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.”Mr. Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, has for decades defended the right of Israelis to establish settlements in the West Bank, which he refers to by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria, and opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territory.However, as ambassador, he is obliged to defend the rights and safety of American citizens and has taken pains to differentiate between mainstream settlers and a violent minority whom he has called “thugs.”Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, said during his visit Saturday that his appreciation for the territory is based on his study of the Bible.“The reason I use the terms ‘Judea’ and ‘Samaria’ is because they are the ancient biblical terms of this land. Eighty percent of the Bible happened in the era of Judea and Samaria,” he said. “The West Bank is a nebulous term to me.”

Huckabee Labels Violent Settler Attacks as ‘Terror’ During Visit to West Bank

Huckabee Labels Violent Settler Attacks as ‘Terror’ During Visit to West Bank

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