US asks Israel to probe ‘terrorist’ killing of American citizen by settlers
Trump’s envoy Mike Huckabee calls the killing of 20-year-old Sayfollah Musallet in occupied West Bank a ‘criminal’ act.
The funeral procession of Sayfollah Musallet near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, July 13 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has called on Israel to probe the killing of 20-year-old American citizen Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling the incident a “terrorist act”.
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said on Tuesday that he asked Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing of the Florida-born Musallet, who was visiting family when he was attacked in the Palestinian town of Sinjil.
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“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Huckabee wrote in a social media post. “Saif was just 20 yrs old.”
Huckabee’s strongly worded post marks a rare critical stance towards Israel by the US envoy, a staunch Israel supporter, who has previously said, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”
But the US ambassador’s statement stops short of backing the Musallet family’s demand for Washington to launch its own probe into the killing.
Critics say Israel rarely holds its settlers or soldiers accountable for abuses against Palestinians. Musallet was the ninth US citizen to be killed by Israel since 2022. None of the previous cases has led to criminal charges.
The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project said Israel should not be trusted to “investigate the extremist settlers it enables at every turn”, renewing calls for an independent US probe.
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21 years after her death in Gaza, Palestinians remember U.S. activist Rachel Corrie
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A group gathering in Qaryut village southeast of Nablus, West Bank, on March 15, 2015, plant an olive tree as they mark the 12th anniversary of the death of U.S. activist Rachel Corrie, who died when she was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003.
AMMAN, Jordan — Twenty-one years ago this month, Rachel Corrie, a young American activist, was protesting the Israeli demolition of homes in the Gaza Strip. Bulldozers had already destroyed the surrounding houses in the neighborhood of Rafah where she was based; on March 16, 2003, they came for the Nasrallah family home where the college student was staying.
Corrie, wearing an orange fluorescent vest and speaking through a bullhorn, was determined to stop them. Standing alone on a mound of earth in the path of the armored vehicle, she expected the Israeli bulldozer approaching her to come to a halt, as other bulldozers had done when faced with international protesters.
But it kept going, and, as her fellow activists screamed and tried to stop it, the 23-year-old college student from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death. The Nasrallah family's children watched in horror through a crack in their garden wall.
American activist Rachel Corrie (left), 23, stands between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian house on March 16, 2003, in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Corrie was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she protested the demolition of Palestinian houses.
Since her death, Corrie's legacy has echoed through the years in Gaza and the region, where people name their children after her. It still resonates in the United States, where her journals were turned into books and a play. Her death two decades ago points to a continuing military occupation of Gaza and the destruction of Palestinian civil society in Gaza, where the World Bank estimates Israel has destroyed almost half of all homes since October, when the war with Hamas started.
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KT comments:
Still no justice for Rachel Corrie till today
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During the Six-Day War, Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attack the USS Liberty in international waters off Egypt’s Gaza Strip. The intelligence ship, well-marked as an American vessel and only lightly armed, was attacked first by Israeli aircraft that fired napalm and rockets at the ship. The Liberty attempted to radio for assistance, but the Israeli aircraft blocked the transmissions. Eventually, the ship was able to make contact with the U.S. carrier Saratoga, and 12 fighter jets and four tanker planes were dispatched to defend the Liberty. When word of their deployment reached Washington, however, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered them recalled to the carrier, and they never reached the Liberty. The reason for the recall remains unclear.
Back in the Mediterranean, the initial air raid against the Liberty was over. Nine of the 294 crew members were dead and 60 were wounded. Suddenly, the ship was attacked by Israeli torpedo boats, which launched torpedoes and fired artillery at the ship. Under the command of its wounded captain, William L. McGonagle, the Liberty managed to avert four torpedoes, but one struck the ship at the waterline. Heavily damaged, the ship launched three lifeboats, but these were also attacked–a violation of international law. Failing to sink the Liberty, which displaced 10,000 tons, the Israelis finally desisted. In all, 34 Americans were killed and 171 were wounded in the two-hour attack. In the attack’s aftermath, the Liberty managed to limp to a safe port.
Israel later apologized for the attack and offered $6.9 million in compensation, claiming that it had mistaken the Liberty for an Egyptian ship. However, Liberty survivors, and some former U.S. officials, believe that the attack was deliberate, staged to conceal Israel’s pending seizure of Syria’s Golan Heights, which occurred the next day. The ship’s listening devices would likely have overheard Israeli military communications planning this controversial operation. Captain McGonagle was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic command of the Liberty during and after the attack.
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KT comments:
Still no justice for the dead and injured of USS Liberty till today
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Conclusion:
Israel is a killer totally tolerated by the Wankees even when the Shailoks murdered (white) Wankee citizens, so what hope would there be for the family of (brown) American citizen Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by Shailok settlers in the occupied West Bank?
Rumour has it Fuck is preparing to throw Netanyahu to the wolves...one of these years...
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