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Huckabee visits Turmus Ayya
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya on Saturday, meeting Palestinian Americans including relatives of U.S. citizens killed by Israeli settlers as settler violence surged.
“Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror”
In Turmus Ayya, Huckabee told reporters, “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,” and he said Israel’s government has a responsibility to ensure safety.
Huckabee also framed the violence as the work of a “tiny little group of marauders,” saying “there may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that’s a few hundred too many,” while he described the meeting as constructive.
The visit came as Israeli officials condemned settler violence, though Reuters said perpetrators are rarely arrested and even less frequently prosecuted, and it followed international condemnation tied to what the sources describe as perceived Israeli inaction.
Competing accounts of scale
During the Turmus Ayya visit, Huckabee met about 10 Palestinian American residents, and the municipality told The Associated Press that residents described the impact of violence on their lives and properties.
CBS News quoted Huckabee saying, “If there are squatters that come in and put up their own flags and take possession of something that does not belong to them,” and he said such behavior is an “act of terror.”
Al Jazeera reported that one person Huckabee met, Ruwan Alqam, described the violence as systematic and told the outlet, “we’re hit with roadblock after roadblock, settlers after settlers”.
Al Jazeera also aired Alon Pinkas’s view that the visit was “largely symbolic … because his visit, as much as it is covered by the media, is not going to change American policy,” while Reuters reported that Yasser Alkam disputed Huckabee’s “few hundred” characterization, saying “There were thousands, he said, not hundreds.”
Pressure, accountability, and fallout
Huckabee told reporters that the U.S. Embassy “can’t investigate criminal activity,” but it can tell Israel that “there are needs that need to be addressed” and that “specific crimes and acts of terror that cannot continue” require investigation and adjudication.
“The U.S. Embassy can't investigate criminal activity”
The New York Times said Huckabee would exert “pressure in order to get some resolution to things you’ve brought up today,” while France 24 described the visit as coming amid international condemnation of what it said was perceived Israeli government inaction.
Reuters reported that Huckabee said he had told Palestinian Americans the embassy had “no power or authority to take action” and could only seek to influence and call attention to issues the U.S. government believed needed correction.
In the longer arc described by Reuters, the visit occurred as settler violence rose sharply since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Reuters added that at least six Palestinian Americans have been killed in the West Bank either by the Israeli military or settlers since 2024, underscoring the stakes for families in Turmus Ayya and beyond.