Erminig Gwenn / Flickr
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced Tuesday that he had urged Israel to “aggressively” investigate the murder of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American citizen in an alleged attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, calling the incident a “criminal and terrorist act.”
“I have asked @Israel to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Mussallet, an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death,” Huckabee stated. “There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, Sayafollah “Saif” Musallet died July 11 after what his family says was a beating by Jewish settlers near the village of Sinjil in the Holy Land. In a statement shared by news outlets and on social media, the family reported that the settlers blocked medics from reaching him for over three hours. He died before reaching the hospital.
The Israeli military said the clash began after Palestinians threw rocks at settlers, “lightly injuring two,” FOX News reported. Musallet’s family has called on the US State Department to launch a formal investigation into his death.
“An American has been killed by Israeli violence, Israeli settler violence,” Saif Musallet’s father, Kamel Musallet, said in an interview July 15. “The violence is just extreme.”
A State Department spokesperson said the agency was aware of “reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank,” but declined to comment further, according to Axios. The spokesperson added that the agency “has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.”
Huckabee’s post quickly sparked controversy on social media, with some X users pointing to a Hamas-issued poster of Musallet.
“The guy being celebrated by Hamas as a martyr?” one user wrote. “Yes, I would be curious to learn more about his business in Judea and Samaria.”
Others pushed back, pointing out that such posters are common in Palestinian society when a person dies.
“This claim is not only false — it is revolting,” wrote Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian-American Christian commentator who studied human rights at the Catholic University of America. “In Palestine, when someone is killed by the Israeli army or settlers, all political parties, even bitter rivals like Fatah and Hamas, often issue mourning posters.”
“In Saif’s case, both factions released posters mourning him,” Hassan added, sharing images of “two separate posters mourning the death of Saif Musallet—one issued by Hamas, the other by Fatah.”
