US Ambassador To Israel Calls Settler Violence In West Bank ‘Act of Terror’

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US Ambassador To Israel Calls Settler Violence In West Bank ‘Act of Terror’

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee stood in a Palestinian West Bank village Saturday and told his hosts that the settlers attacking them were committing terror.

Huckabee condemned Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank again during a visit to Turmus Ayya, calling the conduct an “act of terror,” according to the Associated Press (AP). (RELATED: Senate To Decide If Trump Admin Must Provide Public Details About Increasing West Bank Violence)

“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,” Huckabee said, according to the AP.

The ambassador pressed for accountability and put the obligation on Israel’s government. “Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror. When people do it, they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences,” Huckabee told reporters, adding that “the government has a responsibility” to keep targeted Palestinians safe, according to The Times of Israel. He put the number of violent settlers at “a few hundred who are responsible, but that’s a few hundred too many.”

Huckabee met with roughly 10 Palestinian American residents, according to the AP. The gathering included relatives of Palestinian Americans killed by settlers, and Mayor Nawwaf Zaghoul said about 80% of the town’s roughly 3,000 residents hold U.S. citizenship, according to The Times of Israel.

The ambassador defended his word choice against detractors. He acknowledged being “criticized a little bit for calling that terror” and labeled the settlers a “band of terrorists” engaged in “criminal activity,” according to The Hill.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a Likud member, condemned the actions of a “handful of rioters” a week earlier, and the foreign ministry called the settlers’ conduct “a disgrace,” according to the AP.

Such attacks have climbed since the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations humanitarian office cited by the AP. Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 war and has since built close to 150 settlements housing more than 500,000 people.