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

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States ambassador to Israel condemned Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank again on Saturday, calling the behavior an “act of terror" as he visited with Palestinian American residents shaken by months of attacks.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to such settlers as “terrorists,” a word that U.S. 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 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 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 Oct. 7, 2023, according to the 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 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.”

Netanyahu’s government is the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s history. It has presided over a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal.

On Saturday's visit to Turmus Ayya, the ambassador began his remarks by making clear he was addressing U.S. citizens, who make up a small percentage of the roughly 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank.

“I’m very aware that a lot of the American people who live in Turmus Ayya and other communities across this region are not enjoying the life they deserve to live, not enjoying it in a peaceful way,” Huckabee said. “It’s a life that is disturbed by people who have created extraordinary challenges that are unfair and illegal.”

The U.S. Embassy can't investigate criminal activity, he said, but it can tell its host government “there are needs that need to be addressed, there are issues that cannot go unnoticed, and specific crimes and acts of terror that cannot continue without that country doing the investigation and adjudication that every person has a right to expect.”

Huckabee met with about 10 Palestinian American residents who described the impact of the violence on their lives and properties, the municipality told The Associated Press.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. The U.N. and much of the international community consider them to be illegally occupied .

Since then, the Israeli government has built nearly 150 settlements that are home to well over 500,000 Jewish settlers. Many settlements resemble developed suburbs.

Israel’s military operates in all parts of the West Bank, but rights groups have said the military frequently turns a blind eye to settler violence. The settlers are Israeli citizens, and Israel’s defense minister recently announced plans to fully transfer law enforcement among settlers to the Israeli police.