The United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has condemned settlers who are holding three families in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus, under siege, as “Israeli terrorists”. The siege comes as Israel’s military conducts raids in Jenin, blocking access to aid for Palestinians in the refugee camp on the fourth day of its assault. So what did Huckabee say about settler violence in the West Bank and how significant is this?
Huckabee, a staunch ally of Israel who has voiced support for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite them being illegal under international law, made the unusually critical comments on Thursday, as Israeli settlers besieged three Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra, including one belonging to a dual US citizen. Huckabee posted a video of a convoy of Israeli military and police vehicles, saying they were removing “illegal trespassers there to intimidate Palestinian residents”. US officials have long condemned settler violence towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in general terms but they have not deemed Israeli settlers’ actions “terror” or referred to them as “terrorists”.
Huckabee’s choice of words is one of the strongest public rebukes a US ambassador to Israel has issued over settler attacks. Palestinian residents of the village say they have been cut off from water, electricity and other critical supplies during the siege, which they describe as an attempt by the settlers to seize their land. Loai Ridi, an American-Palestinian who lives in Toledo, US, but owns a house in the village, said his brother Qusai Abu Rida and 18-year-old nephew, Ahmed, were among those trapped.
Because if he leaves the home, the settlers will take over immediately,” he said. The family is relying on a temporary solar power system and leftover well water from the winter after supply lines were cut. The United Nations human rights agency and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates also condemned the settler siege in Qusra on Thursday.
The three families – comprising 15 people, including two children – have been confined to their homes with their water and power cut off since Sunday, the agency reported. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the scene of the siege on Thursday, said Israeli soldiers initially tried to move the trapped families out of their homes while settlers remained camped outside. The families refused, not trusting that the Israeli soldiers would allow them back into their homes, and were eventually grouped together in one of the homes.
Residents have watched settlers push families out and then take over their properties in the past, she reported. Qusra has faced settler attacks for decades, Ibrahim explained, and residents tie the rise in violence to the spread of illegal settlements and the lack of accountability for attackers. According to Israeli media, the authorities are trying to manage the siege by removing the settlers from the area, with limited success.
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