US envoy Huckabee tours West Bank settlement of Shiloh

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visits the West Bank settlement of Shiloh with the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization representing settlement municipal authorities in the West Bank, marking his first official visit to the area as a US representative.

“[US] President [Donald] Trump loves this land. You have sacrificed so much to live in these places — you’ve paid in blood, sweat and tears. This place is a miracle,” Huckabee says in a statement from the Yesha Council.

“I have never used any term other than ‘Judea and Samaria,” he adds, referring to the biblical term for the West Bank, saying that “to use any other terminology would be a historical injustice and a denial of the Bible.”

A US Embassy spokesperson tells The Times of Israel that “for the first time, at the invitation of the Yesha Council, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee made an official visit to the ancient Shiloh site in Binyamin,” and that he met with its chairman and the heads of local regional councils.

The Yesha Council adds that “during the visit, Ambassador Huckabee recited the Prayer of Hannah at the site of the Tabernacle, in ancient Shiloh, praying for the release of the hostages and for the safety of Israeli soldiers.”

Archaeological finds have indicated that Shiloh is the site where the Bible says the Tabernacle — a portable temple that was used before the First Temple was built in Jerusalem — stayed for 369 years after the ancient Israelites entered the Holy Land.

“I can’t imagine being in Israel and not seeing Shiloh because it is one of the most important biblical sites that validates the Jewish connection to the homeland going back 3,500 years… this is an extraordinary place where so much of the history of the Jewish people was really formed,” Huckabee tells Israel Hayom at the site.

Trump’s previous ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, made several visits to West Bank settlements during his tenure as envoy, altering the status quo of the pre-Trump era in which US ambassadors did not make visits to Israeli areas over the Green Line.

Huckabee’s Shiloh visit marks the first time a US ambassador holds an official meeting in the West Bank with the Yesha Council, as opposed to Friedman’s own tours in the area with the organization, which were considered “private,” rather than “official,” according to Ynet.