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Huckabee condemns violent Israeli settlers as terrorists

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned violent Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians as terrorism, prompting Israeli officials to call the actions disgraceful.

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe Staff Writer

SEPTEMBER 6, 2026 AT 1:00 AM

The American envoy has previously spoken out against settler violence, including following an incident last month in which Israeli settlers attacked a residence in the West Bank village of Qusra belonging to an American citizen.

During a visit to the village of Turmus Ayya, where residents report repeated settler attacks over the past year, Huckabee offered an unambiguous assessment of the actions in question. He described squatters seizing property, burning vehicles, torching mosques, and vandalising homes with graffiti as extending beyond criminal behaviour into the realm of terror. The ambassador clarified his remarks were aimed at United States citizens residing among Palestinians in the region.

Embassy Authority and Israeli Government Accountability

Huckabee underscored that while the United States Embassy lacks jurisdiction to conduct criminal investigations on Israeli soil, Washington retains the capacity to press the Israeli government for action. We can tell our host government there are needs that need to be addressed, he stated, adding that specific crimes and acts of terror cannot persist without proper investigation and adjudication by Israeli authorities.

In the days following Huckabee’s initial public condemnation, Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to a mosque in the West Bank village of Bazariya and spray-painted a Hebrew message on a wall reading: “Huckabee regards from the terrorists.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently condemned what he termed the actions of a “handful of rioters,” while Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the settler conduct as “a disgrace.”

Escalating Violence Since October 2023

Settler violence in the West Bank has increased sharply since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing conflict in Gaza. United Nations data indicates that settler attacks against Palestinians surpassed 1,800 incidents in 2025 alone.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities, a figure that encompasses deaths caused by Israeli settlers as well as other Israeli security actions. Dozens of Israelis have also been killed during the same period.

With information from Washington Examiner

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe

She was born in 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the granddaughter of an immigrant from Crete who settled in the Greek community of Johannesburg (one of the largest in Africa). She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg and a master’s degree in Journalism from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She began her career at English-language media outlets in Johannesburg, covering politics and economics, with a focus on issues related to migration and the diaspora. She moved to Athens in 2015 to “return to her roots,” initially to pursue graduate studies, and has remained there permanently. She is married to an Afrikaner; they have two children and live in the southern suburbs of Athens.

Embassy Authority and Israeli Government Accountability