US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Monday paid a previously unannounced visit to the large West Bank settlement of Ariel, making him the highest-ranking US official to ever visit an Israeli settlement.
During the visit, Johnson said that the “mountains of Judea and Samaria” belong to the Jewish people “by right,” using the biblical name for the West Bank. Johnson, who as speaker is the third ranking US official after the president and vice president, became the most senior American dignitary ever to visit a settlement.
While in Ariel, he spoke at a celebratory event attended by the mayor Yair Chetboun and the mayors of several other West Bank settlements.
“Every corner of this land is important to us. It is an integral part of our faith, and therefore the significance for us is great… We stand entirely by your side,” said Johnson, according to a statement by the municipal authority of the Ariel settlement.
“Scripture teaches us that the mountains of Judea and Samaria were promised to the Jewish people, and they belong to them by right. But many people around the world do not see it like this, they label it the ‘occupied territories’ or the ‘West Bank’ or any other name,” he reportedly said.
“Every mayor here should know exactly where we stand regarding this issue – and we stand with you,” Johnson added.
Along with Johnson, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his daughter and Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee-Sanders also participated in the US delegation, along with Republican congressmen Nathaniel Moran, Michael McCaul, Claudia Tenney, and Michael Cloud.
According to Axios, Johnson and the four other Republican lawmakers came to Israel on a previously unannounced trip, organized by Heather Johnston, the founder of a group called the US Israel Education Association. The trip is designated as private and not official, the report added.
Chetboun described Johnson’s visit as “an historic moment of shared values, deep friendship, and strong partnership between the US and Israel, and between the US and Judea and Samaria, the place where the Jewish story began.”
A picture shared online by the Israel Hayom daily shows Ariel Mayor Yair Chetboun with Johnson and Johnson’s wife Kelly Lary, apparently after having planted a tree.
On X, Marc Zell, who heads the GOP’s Israel branch and is himself a West Bank settler, corroborated Chetboun’s account of what Johnson said during his visit, including that he said “the mountains of Judea and Samaria are the rightful property of the Jewish people.”
Johnson’s visit came as Israel’s activities in the West Bank have come under increasing international scrutiny, including from the US, over its failure to curb settler violence against Palestinians.
Over the last month, two Palestinian-Americans were killed in alleged settler attacks, the first of which drew condemnation from Huckabee, who demanded Israel investigate that killing, calling it a “criminal and terrorist act.�
A devout evangelical Christian, Huckabee has long expressed support for Israel annexing the West Bank and has pushed back against calls for scaling back Israel’s presence there, making his public condemnations of some Israeli policies and settler violence particularly notable.
Despite the condemnations, settler attacks on Palestinians throughout the West Bank continue on a near-daily basis, largely with impunity, in what has sparked mounting sanctions from Western governments.
Violence in the West Bank has spiked since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.