‘You are a terrorist.’ American, Israeli settlers face off after journey to besieged Palestine home
After traveling to Palestine from his home in Ohio, Loui Ridi raised a giant American flag over his West Bank property, hoping it might deter militant settlers besieging it. But it wasn’t enough to stop at least one of them from walking onto Ridi’s land, with the two engaging in a tense face-off captured by Reuters journalists. An Israeli military vehicle drove by a few times before soldiers approached and spoke to the settler, telling him it’s a closed military area.
“You are a terrorist settler, you know that?” Ridi told the settler.
Ridi arrived in Qusra fearing he could lose the property to Jewish settlers who have encircled three Palestinian homes in the village for more than a week, prompting U.S. condemnation. Tensions are on the rise the village where settlers began besieging the homes more than a week ago, part of what rights groups say is a wider effort by settlers to seize more land from Palestinians, further eating into territory where they aim to establish a state. U.S. officials have estimated that tens of thousands of Americans live in the occupied West Bank, many of them in a cluster of villages.
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee — a strong supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank — on Thursday condemned settlers besieging Ridi’s home as “Israeli terrorists”. A U.S. official and an Israeli official said on Friday White House officials are pressing Netanyahu to publicly condemn the settlers’ actions, but Netanyahu has not commented on the siege in Qusra.
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