Settler leader condemns Qusra siege: ‘Not our way’; Huckabee: ‘Unsettlers’ are the problem

Yisrael Ganz, chair of an umbrella council for Israel’s West Bank settlements, criticizes the siege settlers have placed on Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra, speaking out against violence and saying the siege harms the settlement enterprise as a whole.

The statement, made days after the siege began, is a clear condemnation of a high-profile instance of settler violence from one of the most prominent settlement leaders, and comes as the IDF has struggled to remove the settlers from the outposts they’ve established in Qusra.

“The events in Qusra are severe and are not our way,” he writes on Facebook. “There is no place to decide, individually, to establish a hilltop [outpost] in the courtyard of a home, even in a case of an illegal home or an attempt to take over land.”

He adds, “And there is certainly no justification for violence toward bystanders or security forces.”

He continues, “There are those who have rushed to use events like these to mount a campaign against settlements overall. We cannot let them do that, but at the same time, that campaign should not blur the simple truth: What happened in Qusra is improper and is unacceptable to us.”

He calls for the continuation of settlement across the West Bank “in an orderly and correct way,” and for Israel to allow settlement construction across the territory.

The Qusra siege came amid a monthslong surge in settler violence, with near-daily attacks on Palestinians and their property in which arrests are rare and prosecutions rarer still.

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who has defended settlements in the past, condemned the perpetrators in Qusra this morning as “Israeli terrorists.” But later in the day, he wrote on X that they were not representative of settlers as a whole.

He praises Ganz for condemning the siege.

“‘Settlers’ are not the problem in Judea/Samaria. ‘Unsettlers’ are,” he writes. “Very small minority who do great damage to Palestinian families & to Israel. Real settlers like Ysrael Ganz, Governor of Judea/Samaria condemn the actions of the few. Let’s hope the media gives attention to this & balances their stories.”

"Settlers" are not the problem in Judea/Samaria. "Unsettlers" are. Very small minority who do great damage to Palestinian families & to Israel. Real settlers like Ysrael Ganz, Governor of Judea/Samaria condemn the actions of the few. Let's hope the media gives attention to this…

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) August 13, 2026