US Palestinian Americans face escalating settler violence as ambassador backs Israeli outposts

Between the white-stone houses of Turmus Ayya and the corrugated metal shacks of an illegal Israeli outpost lies a few hundred metres of scorched earth. A boulder marks the boundary—a physical declaration that this land now belongs to someone else. On summer mornings, children who grew up in New York, Chicago, and New Jersey return to their family homes here to learn Arabic and experience Palestinian culture. About eighty percent of Turmus Ayya's residents hold American passports. Many fly the stars and stripes from their balconies. At night, settlers in off-road vehicles roam the village, firing guns into the darkness, screaming, shining flashlights through windows. They spray-paint "Revenge" on houses. They come with bottles of flammable liquid.

Yaser Alkam spent thirty-five years as a family law attorney in Anaheim, California, before returning to lead his village council. He describes the situation with a kind of bewildered precision: "Only in Palestine will you find American citizens invading American citizens for land." The outposts radiate from Shilo, a hilltop settlement across the valley that has become a destination for Americans seeking connection to Jewish heritage. In the past two years, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee has visited Shilo twice—visits the United Nations classifies as violations of international law. In 2025, Huckabee told residents there: "President Trump loves this land. You are not alone. We stand with you." The message was clear. The irony was not lost on people in Turmus Ayya: American dollars, flowing through Jewish charities and military aid budgets, help finance the land grab. Some of those attacking the village may themselves be American citizens.

Nine Palestinian Americans have been killed in the West Bank since 2022, either by settlers or the Israeli military. The violence in Turmus Ayya predates the October 2023 Hamas attacks, but has intensified sharply over the past year. Ghaith Odeh grew up in Queens and still spends most of his time in Paterson, New Jersey, but his wife and children moved to their family land in Turmus Ayya in 2021. They live on the village border, closest to the settlers. He has endured multiple nights of gunfire, six Israeli military raids on his house, a rifle pointed at his son. When he contacted the US embassy, he received form responses directing him to local law enforcement. "It's OK for an Israeli American to live over here," he said, "but not for an American Palestinian."

Maisoon Ali, sixty years old, spent decades in Vienna, Virginia, before retiring to her family home in nearby Deir Dibwan. Her father built the house in the 1970s, foreseeing trouble, and installed bulletproof glass. On his deathbed, he made her promise never to abandon it. On June 14th, she looked up from inside her house and saw three young men running up the driveway carrying bottles filled with flammable liquid. She ran inside and pulled down the metal shutters just as they began pouring the liquid on the exterior and setting fires. "If I didn't do that, I would have been burned alive," she said. Two days earlier, Huckabee had made a surprise visit to Shilo to back the settlers. Ali's house is now fortified with fences and barriers. She no longer travels to Ramallah to see friends or swim at the local YMCA. "It would kill him to see this," she said of her father. "This is our land and I'm 60 years old and I decided to retire in my family home. And I don't want to live like this, scared."

When Alkam contacts the embassy for protection during attacks, sometimes US officials help. In late July, after the Israeli military occupied a house belonging to a doctor from Syracuse who had hosted Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the embassy intervened and the military withdrew. But these moments of assistance have only convinced residents that Washington could do far more. Alkam has reached out to Huckabee at least four times requesting a visit to Turmus Ayya. The ambassador has not responded. Many residents voted for Trump, Alkam said, but lost faith when the administration quickly removed violent settlers from sanctions lists drawn up under the previous administration. The State Department responded to inquiries by saying the US does not support Israeli annexation of the West Bank and that it condemns violence by any party. But for residents living behind barbed wire and metal shutters, the words ring hollow. "We thought we would never get to this point," Alkam said. "We never thought that American citizens in Turmus Ayya are going to be attacked under the eyes and the ears of the current administration."