US Ambassador Huckabee warns Jewish settler extremist violence is damaging Israel’s global standing

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned on Friday that violent Jewish extremists in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) are damaging Israel’s international standing and undermining the reputation of the vast majority of law-abiding Israeli residents there.

“It’s not just damaging the reputation of all of the people – of the Israelis who legally, safely, and quite frankly, very responsibly live in Judea and Samaria – but it’s really damaging the image of Israel as a nation and a people,” Huckabee told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan News.

“And I find that unfortunate because right now, Israel needs to have all the friends it can get,” Huckabee continued. “It doesn’t need any more enemies. And the actions of a tiny minority can stain the reputation of people that deserve to be respected, appreciated.”

Huckabee, a Christian Zionist and staunch supporter of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, has increasingly condemned violent acts by extremist Jewish activists in the area.

“Violence is violence. It doesn’t matter who does it – it should be condemned,” Huckabee said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Last month, Huckabee specifically condemned extremist settlers who prevented Palestinian Arab families from reaching their homes in the village of Qusra, referring to the perpetrators as “Israeli terrorists.” At the same time, he emphasized that the vast majority of Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria are peaceful and law-abiding.

“There are half a million Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria. The best estimates of the number of people who engage in these criminal acts are somewhere between three to five hundred total. So that’s a tiny number of the amount of people [sic]. I don’t call them settlers. They’re unsettlers,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee’s repeated condemnation of extremist violence has made him a target of radical activists. Following the torching of a mosque earlier this week in the Palestinian village of Bizzariya, sarcastic graffiti appeared near the site reading, “Regards to Huckabee from the terrorists.”

The U.S. envoy responded that it was “truly sad that someone would take pride in being a terrorist,” while again stressing that violent extremists represent only a tiny minority of Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also condemned extremist settler violence, referring to the perpetrators as a “handful of rioters” whose actions smear the broader “law-abiding settler public.”

According to data from Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence, settler attacks against Palestinians increased during the first half of 2026, with 660 incidents reported compared with 440 during the same period in 2025. Jewish extremists have also attacked Israeli soldiers serving in the area.

Israeli security officials have stressed that while settler violence is significantly smaller in scale than Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, it nevertheless poses a threat to Israel’s security and social cohesion.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has described extremist settler violence as “morally and ethically unacceptable” and warned that it causes “extraordinary strategic damage” to Israel.

The violence has also drawn strong condemnation from Western governments and Israeli and international media.