US ambassador calls violent Israeli settlers ‘terrorists’ after weeks of West Bank unrest

The United States ambassador to Israel condemned Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank again on Saturday, calling the behaviour an “act of terror” as he visited Palestinian American residents shaken by months of attacks.

Mike Huckabee referred to such settlers as “terrorists”, a word that US officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants.

“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 vandalise 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 during his visit to the village of Turmus Ayya, which has reported frequent attacks by settlers over the past year.

Such attacks have surged since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to the UN (United Nations) humanitarian office.

Huckabee also used the term “terrorists” last month after weeks of unrest in the West Bank town of Qusra, where settlers surrounded several homes including one owned by a Palestinian American. Days later, residents of the West Bank village of Bazariya said settlers burned a mosque and left a message on a wall in graffiti reading “Huckabee regards from the terrorists” in Hebrew.

“I’m glad they admitted it,” the ambassador said on Saturday of the incident, adding: “I don’t think that’s what they intended to do but I do think that they represent a very tiny minority.”

A week ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the actions of a “handful of rioters”, and the foreign ministry called the settlers’ actions “a disgrace”.