U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned Israeli settlers in the West Bank not to seize property owned by Palestinian Americans.
Huckabee was asked by Reuters what the Trump administration would say to settlers considering taking homes or land in the West Bank owned by Palestinian Americans. He told the outlet, “I think the message is bigger than just even the Trump administration. It’s a message of basic civility and civilized behavior.”
“You don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you,” he emphasized, going on to explain that the idea is explicit in the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not steal,” Huckabee said.
“If someone owns the land and they own their house, then having someone come and take it over and scare the family away from it, that’s a violation, not just of man’s law. That’s a violation of God’s law,” he declared.
Huckabee further noted that he was “appalled” by recent home seizures in Qusra.
Last year, Huckabee demanded that Israel launch an investigation into the death of Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet. Musallet, also known as Saif, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in Sinjil.
“I have asked [Israel] to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Mussallet, an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death,” Huckabee wrote on social media. “There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old.”
The Musallets said the incident is an “unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face.” They urged the State Department to “lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes.”
