US Embassy Refuses to Protect American Journalist Trapped in Israeli Settler-Army Ambush
Occupied West Bank (QNN)- The US embassy in Israel told American journalist Jasper Nathaniel it cannot protect him from the Israeli army or settlers. The message urged him to rely on the Israeli military, which had led him into a settler ambush.
On Saturday, Jasper and international protectors spent thirty minutes hiding from violent settler attacks while accompanying Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. They tried to change their route to avoid the Israeli settlers, but an Israeli military jeep blocked their path. After the jeep left, settlers who had been hiding in the area ambushed them, injuring three. Dozens lay in wait.
Residents of Turmusayya, northeast of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, organize joint olive picking to reduce the risk of Israeli settler attacks. The town has experienced repeated violent raids since October 7, 2023. About 85% of Turmusayya’s residents hold US citizenship. They frequently report attacks to the US embassy but say they rarely receive meaningful responses.
About 200 foreign volunteers joined this year’s olive-harvest protection campaign in the West Bank. They face harassment from both settlers and the Israeli army, including threats and intimidation during harvests.
In a text message Jasper shared, the embassy claimed that it lacked manpower to protect him or US Palestinians and cited legal limits preventing such protection. When he asked whether they could protect him as an American tourist, the embassy replied that they could not. The embassy emphasized that host-nation governments bear responsibility for protecting foreign citizens and compared its stance to previous pullouts from Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela.
Jasper told Quds News Network that Israeli soldiers led his group directly into the ambush. He saw soldiers only once, when they told the group they would move up the hill, and they disappeared immediately afterward. He did not see any soldiers again until the next morning, when they appeared at the olive harvest site.
He also rejected Israeli army claims that soldiers had intervened. According to Jasper, the Israeli army never showed up to disperse the settlers. The settlers fled only when a large crowd of Palestinians gathered at the bottom of the hill, not because of any military action.
The US embassy’s refusal to protect non-Israeli Americans underscores a striking inconsistency in US policy. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee previously stated, “There’s 700,000 Americans living in Israel. If the Houthis want to continue doing things to Israel and they hurt an American, then it becomes our business.” Meanwhile, Americans in the West Bank remain vulnerable to violence from Israeli settlers and the army. The discrepancy highlights a double standard in US policy, prioritizing the protection of Israelis over that of American citizens.
