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US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee fell for a staged incident during a Saturday visit to the Arab village of Turmus Ayya in Binyamin, publicly accusing Israelis on a nearby farm’s security patrol of being trespassers.
Huckabee visited Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, to meet with local Arab-Americans and hear allegations of vandalism, threats, violence and trespassing by Israelis from nearby Jewish communities and farms. The village is notable for its large number of Palestinian Authority Arab residents who hold American citizenship in Judea and Samaria. In 1967, the Muslim town had 1,500 residents; today it has 8,000, and up to 90 percent of its permanent residents hold US citizenship, according to Mayor Nawwaf Zaghoul. A new Regavim investigation traces how Turmus Ayya became center for naturalization, birthright citizenship and chain migration on a scale which has been ignored by Washington.
During Huckabee’s visit to the area, village representatives took him to an area near a Palestinian home where an American flag was displayed which stood along a route patrolled by the security team of a nearby Jewish farm, as has been reported by Channel 14 Judea and Samaria reporter Eliya Aviv. When the farm’s Ranger passed on its regular patrol, Huckabee was told he was watching Israelis trespassing on Arab-owned property.
Ambassador Huckabee pulled out his phone, filmed them and posted the video to X and wrote “Visited Americans in Turmusayya in constructive town hall to hear disturbing stories of criminal & terrorist actions by band of trespassers who brazenly roam through property of lawful property owners like these guys. Disgraceful acts that don’t reflect 99% of Israelis.”
Hence, according to Aviv, they were not trespassing. They were conducting the farm’s routine security patrol. The video itself shows the Ranger moving through the area rather than stopping to enter or occupy anything. Footage of the encounter shows someone standing near Huckabee telling him, “There is no respect for nobody,” to which Huckabee responds, “Yeah,” while continuing to film.
People present during the visit told Israel’s Channel 12 that Huckabee intended to send the footage personally to President Donald Trump.
Huckabee later posted that US citizens in Turmus Ayya had shared stories of “homes vandalized, children threatened, & violence/intimidation.”
“I support Israelis living in Judea/Samaria where they have right to be, but NO student of Bible supports lawlessness.”
Speaking to reporters during the visit, Huckabee said several hundred people are responsible for violent incidents and described them as a small minority of the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria. “There may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that’s a few hundred too many,” he said.
The US Embassy’s account promoting the visit indicated that Huckabee had come visited the area to personally hear complaints by local residents regarding their experiences and concerns. During the town hall, Huckabee said that when someone builds a home, “you have every expectation that that home is going to be not just a place where you live, but a sanctuary for you and your family.” “Anything that threatens that is an act of terror,” he said.
Amishav Mellet, brother of Benayahu Mellet HY”D who was recently murdered in a terror attack while defending a group of hikers, was the driver of the ranger which Ambassador Huckabee filmed, and he penned an open letter in response to Huckabee’s description of the security team being “dangerous and threatening settlers”
I suggest everyone read Mellet’s comments in full. Here is his own explanation for what Huckabee witnessed:
“This morning, our shepherd, who was out with the flock, reported that dozens of vehicles had gathered at the edge of the village — precisely in an area from which, over the past several months, there have been repeated attacks and arson incidents against us.
I got into our security Ranger to check what was happening, and at the same time we notified the IDF as per protocol.
When we arrived and saw respectable people and media crews, we said hello and continued on our way. Shortly afterward, the army informed us that this [yours] was a proper, coordinated visit.
That is the entire story.”
There was no indication in Huckabee’s post that the identity of the men in the ATV, the purpose of their presence or the status of the route had been independently verified before he described them as a “band of trespassers.” No attempt appears to have been made before publication to determine whether the vehicle belonged to a nearby farm, whether it was on a regular patrol route, or whether the men had any legitimate reason to be there. According to Aviv, they did.
Instead, the ambassador appears to have accepted the interpretation offered to him by the village representatives without the slightest inspection regarding their claims or the counter claims by those who he seems to continue describing as terrorists. Instead, he witnessed a Jewish security vehicle, he was told the men inside were trespassers, and he posted this allegation as an established fact.
The problem in this case is not Huckabee’s condemnation of violence or property crimes. It is that he publicly accused identifiable Israelis of criminal conduct without any effort to test the claims being offered to him.
The visit also drew criticism from Elisha Yered, who pointed to Turmus Ayya’s record of glorifying terrorists. Yared wrote on X that “I heard that Huckabee came this Shabbat for a visit to the murderers’ village of Turmus Ayya — the village that elected the accomplice of Yehuda Guetta’s murderer, Hy’d, as its head while he was still in prison.”
Yered was referring to Turmus Ayya’s election of Lafi Shalabi as mayor while he was imprisoned for assisting Muntasir Shalabi, the terrorist who murdered 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta in a drive-by shooting at Tapuah Junction in May 2021. The attack also wounded two other teenagers. Shalabi was sentenced to 10 months in prison under a plea agreement. It should be pointed out that Shalabi holds American citizenship and is a resident of Turmus Ayya.
Huckabee’s visit came amid a mounting campaign alleging “Settler Violence” by Jewish extremists in Judea and Samaria. Last week, a mosque in the village of Bizzariya was set on fire and Hebrew graffiti reading “Regards to Huckabee from the terrorists” was sprayed nearby. Huckabee referenced the incident during Saturday’s visit, saying the perpetrators had effectively identified themselves by using the term, while ignoring the reality that he has no good faith basis on which to judge if that graffiti was not in fact staged for exactly the purpose of ensnaring the Ambassador in another false flag claim, similar to what took place following what Huckabee had been told was an arson attack by “Settlers” on a church in Taybeh in July 2025.
Indeed, prior to any investigation, just hours after a Jewish residents in a nearby farm had collected to put out a fire in a nearby field, Huckabee was brought to an archaeological site of an ancient church. While there he accepted claims made by Arab Christians that the church had been vandalized by arson and condemned those who were responsible. The implication of Huckabee’s comments were promoted around the world in a heartbeat, once again via X, condemning Israeli settlers for crimes that they did not commit on a “vandalized church” which wasn’t vandalized and wasn’t an active church, despite Huckabee’s assertions to the contrary. What followed after an actual investigation took place was that it was reported that there was no indication of any vandalism to the church, which was a stone archaeological site rather than a religious center, took place.
Importantly at the time, Ambassador Huckabee came to state that “Glad the Israel Police continue search for truth without regard to assumptions.” This remark is important to reflect upon because Israel is a state based on laws, and when criminal offenses take place, unbiased investigations by authorized personel are what follows. It takes time, more time than a press interview, and certainly more time than uploading a video with only claims based on unsubstantiated assumptions via an X post.
As it was stated by the Israeli police following a fair and impartial investigation at the ‘vandalized’ ‘church’ at Taybeh, “Due process is based on facts, not headlines.” This is something which I hope Ambassador Huckabee might reflect upon in the future while entertaining uncorroborated claims based on uninvestigated charges. Israel is a land of institutions, providing for the justice of Arabs, Jews and Christians alike. As in America, the law must be obeyed in Israel, but the law requires an assumption of innocence against anyone charged with a crime, and charges of criminal activity by authorities must be based on the collection of evidence to first certify if any criminal activity is actually taking place. It is known as due process. Instead of advocating for due process of what he witnessed, Huckabee chose to play the role of an advocate, not for justice, but for results based on assumptions reported by one sided political activists, even if they happen to be Americans.
Indeed, while there may be genuine cases of violence, vandalism or trespassing by Israelis in Judea and Samaria, those situations demand a fair investigation based on the fact. Notably, the Ranger filmed by Huckabee was not evidence of such a crime. The Ambassador was taken to the route of a Jewish farm’s security patrol, shown the vehicle as it passed, and told he was watching Israeli trespassers.
As was true in Taybeh, Huckabee believed it and shared a spontaneous response based on one sided reports.
Then he posted the video himself as if it were evidence of a real crime without the slightest effort to clearly understand the situation in which he was placed, much as was the case when he reported a vandalized church at Taybeh.
The consequences for this political theater is that PM Netanyahu, under US pressure following this event, ordered the Jewish settlers in Area B to be removed. He also required his minister to withhold any criticism for this action. There is no justice in any of this. Meanwhile there was no mention regarding the 135,ooo illegal Arab structures which are crisscrossing Area C.
Please, recall the substantive comment in the police report which followed an investigation of the Taybeh incident: “Due process is based on facts, not headlines.”
Huckabee’s actions and those that came as result of it have come to prove that this statement is entirely false.
Is this how justice is practiced in Arkansas? I suspect not.
Sources
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-907629
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/432755
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/412048
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mikehuckabeetaybehvisitremarks.htm
https://x.com/EFischberger/status/1947405345015337194
https://x.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/1946563436227539264
https://www.regavim.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Diplomatic-Brief-Turmus-Ayya-16-June-2026-1-1.pdf
https://israel365news.com/421036/huckabee-falls-for-the-violent-settler-libel-again/
https://x.com/c14english/status/2086916288597893592?s=46
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