U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s visit to the site of alleged arson at a historic church in the West Bank over the weekend exposed how seemingly localized incidents in Israel are deeply embedded in politically driven narratives and religious debates.
On Saturday, July 19, Huckabee visited the Arab Christian village of Taybeh and he met with village leaders to discuss an incident of alleged arson caused by Jewish “settlers” at the ruins of the Saint George Greek Orthodox church. Taybeh is the only Christian village in the West Bank, and legend has it that the ancient church was built by Emperor Constantine and his mother, Helena, in the 4th century.
Huckabee commented on X that he met with Taybeh’s leaders and residents to “listen & learn.” Residents claimed that they have endured waves of severe assaults by Jewish neighbors in recent weeks. The Greek Orthodox and Latin Patriarchs from Jerusalem, alongside diplomats from 20 nations, pinned the arson on nearby Jewish “settlers.”
“This was a targeted attack on a community that symbolizes peace,” noted Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, who further stated that Israeli authorities have allowed Jewish intimidation to continue unchecked. Huckabee’s statement from the U.S. Embassy called the alleged arson an act of terrorism and “a crime against humanity and God.”
However, Monday’s police investigation into the incident concluded: “Contrary to false reports and following recent foreign media coverage regarding the alleged arson, we wish to clarify that these reports are factually incorrect, lack any evidentiary basis, and risk misleading the public.”
The Judea and Samaria Central Investigations Unit (YAMAR) found that a localized fire was started in open brush near the church’s retaining wall and caused no damage to the infrastructure or property. The emergency police dispatch had also received phone calls from both Palestinians and Israeli Jewish residents reporting the initial sighting of the fire.
After reviewing a security video released by the Taybeh municipality, the Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL) found undisputed footage of young men from a nearby Jewish farm arriving on the scene with firefighting gear, attempting to contain and extinguish the fire. One farmer, a teenager identified as “Y,” told TPS-IL that he first noticed the flames while grazing his sheep and was later pelted by objects from people hiding in the church cemetery while trying to contain the fire.
“Unproven allegations and misleading headlines cannot be allowed to replace evidence, due process, and the pursuit of truth,” the police statement concluded.
On Tuesday morning, Huckabee attempted to save face after “listening and learning” about surging waves of Jewish “settler violence” by posting: “Investigations reveal no damage to ancient church in Taybeh & investigation of the origin of the fire continues. I have NOT attributed the cause of fire to any person or group as we don’t know for sure. The press has. I have said that regardless, it was a crime & deserves consequences.”
The Fabrication of “Settler Violence”
Jewish “settler violence” in the West Bank became a major talking point in the spring of 2024 with the Biden administration’s policy for the creation of a Palestinian state as the only solution to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The policy put the administration in a tough spot, negotiating between support for Israel and legitimizing Palestinian autonomy against the backdrop of Hamas’s horrific Oct. 7 invasion and massacre. As a solution, the White House spotlighted the West Bank to direct public attention away from the war in Gaza and lay legitimate terms for a Palestinian state based on an alleged uptick of Jewish violence toward Palestinians.
Known in Israel as the biblical regions of Judea and Samaria, the West Bank is a contested area divided according to the 1993 Oslo Accords into cities governed by the Palestinian Authority and Israel, with security measures keeping the Palestinian and Jewish populations separate. The Biden administration painted a picture of an Israeli wild west, where Jewish “settlers” living in the “occupied” West Bank harass and inflict violence on their Palestinian neighbors as the Israeli government stands idly by.
Earlier this month, Gadi Taub at Tablet divulged how the 125-page “False Flags and Real Agendas” report published by the Israel NGO Regavim in April exposed “settler violence” as a political fabrication.
Regavim examined over 8,000 incidents of Israeli settler and civilian violence in the West Bank recorded in the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs database. The organization found that most recorded acts of violence were between Israeli security forces and Muslim instigators, strategically reframed as “settler violence,” while actual Jewish civilian violence was rare. The incidents recorded in this database are what politicians and the media use, recycle, and blow out of proportion to drive the “settler violence” narrative in justification for a two-state solution.
A large portion of the incidents take liberty with definitions, listing Jews hiking in the West Bank, visiting archaeological sites, or visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as “settler violence.” The less than 10 percent of incidents that did involve violent civilian intervention not only omitted information concerning who initiated the clashes, but also included Jewish civilians defending themselves from Palestinian terrorist attacks.
That the appearance of Jewish farmers rushing to extinguish a fire in an Arab West Bank village was reframed and circulated by the media as “settler violence” fits the misinformation campaign exposed by the Regavim report.
Huckabee’s Publicity Stunt to Protect Christians
Huckabee, no doubt, operates on good intentions, but rushing to placate the political fabrication of “settler violence” over the weekend sounds too familiar from the Biden playbook. Furthermore, his appearance with church leaders in Taybeh carried the overtones of a publicity stunt to further his personal agenda in Israel alongside his diplomatic obligations.
As an Evangelical pastor and long-time supporter of Israel, Huckabee sees himself as the protector of Christians’ rights in the Holy Land. Lately, Huckabee has been bogged down in a dispute with Israel’s interior minister, the Orthodox Shas party official Moshe Arbel, over the delay of long-term visa renewals for workers in Evangelical organizations.
The initial delays caused Huckabee to accuse the Israeli government of religious prejudice. After meeting with Arbel in May, the interior minister reassured Huckabee that all visa applications were being processed. But two months later, Huckabee issued a letter expressing disappointment in the continued delays and threatened to issue statements that Christians were no longer welcome in Israel.
The official annexation of the West Bank remains a strong item on Israel’s post-war agenda, and while the embers in Taybeh seem extinguished for now, Huckabee’s maneuvers reveal a willingness to leverage politically driven narratives to achieve his diplomatic agenda.