WASHINGTON, D.C. – After Israeli settlers killed 19-year-old U.S. citizen Nasrullah Abu Siyam in the occupied West Bank last week, the U.S. Department of State Oruf State said “nothing takes precedence over the safety and security of Americans.”
But as the number of Americans killed by Israel continues to rise, human rights activists say the U.S. government’s failure to ensure accountability is creating a deadly cycle of impunity.
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Abu Siyam, who was shot dead in the village of Mi’kmas near Jerusalem, is among at least 11 Americans killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022.
“It’s a joke. I don’t take these people seriously,” William Asfour, the Chicago office’s American Muslim coordinator for Palestine, said of the U.S. government’s response to the killings.
“If this were true, we would stop arms supplies to Israel. We would hold these settlers and terrorists accountable. We would sanction them and embargo arms.”
Last year, Asfour helped lead calls for an independent U.S.-led investigation into the killing of Khamis Ayyad, a Chicago father of five, in a West Bank settler attack in July.
However, the US Department of Justice has not opened an investigation into Ayyad’s death, and no one has been charged in the case in Israel.
Similarly, no charges have been filed in the murder of Seifola Musalet, a 20-year-old Florida man who was bludgeoned to death by Israeli settlers last year.
Other cases have followed a similar pattern, going back to the case of peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003. U.S. authorities initially express concern but do not take decisive action to seek justice.
“It’s a terrible cycle. We just keep seeing how dehumanized we are,” Asfour, a Palestinian-American, told Al Jazeera.
“If you really cared about the American people, at home and abroad, you would take the necessary action. You can talk all you want, but we want action.”
Mike Huckabee’s role
Supporters argue that the US government could force accountability simply by leveraging the massive amounts of aid it sends to Israel. The United States has provided more than $21 billion to Israel in the past two years alone.
However, US President Donald Trump has given little indication that he plans to impose sanctions or cut aid to Israel.
Instead, last May he moved to lift current penalties against Israeli citizens, saying it was not his job to “use U.S. policy to dispense justice” abroad.
Shortly after returning to the White House last year, President Trump rescinded sanctions against violent settlers involved in well-documented abuses against Palestinians, including American citizens.
President Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has also been a staunch defender of Israel policy, but has exerted little pressure, at least publicly, to ensure the protection of American citizens.
For example, Huckabee shared more than 40 posts on social media platform X last week, many of which amplified pro-Israel and anti-Muslim activists.
Some defended Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. But no one mentioned Abu Siyam’s shooting.
Mr Huckabee issued a strongly worded statement after Israeli settlers bludgeoned Mr Musalet to death last year, saying: “This criminal and terrorist act must be held accountable.”
However, the US government has not launched an independent investigation or imposed any sanctions regarding the incident.
The ambassador sparked outrage last week by suggesting that, according to his interpretation of the Bible, he would approve of Israel’s occupation of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and parts of Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t have a problem with them accepting everything,” Huckabee said in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Asked about the massacre in Gaza, Huckabee claimed that the Israeli military has taken more steps to protect civilians than the U.S. military.
Mr. Asfour said Mr. Huckabee’s public statements demonstrate a dereliction of his duty to protect the American people and interests.
“Are you a representative of the U.S. government or a puppet of Israel?” Asfour said of the ambassador.
‘Green light’ for violence
On Sunday, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) called on the US government to take the necessary steps to ensure accountability for Abu Siyam’s recent shooting death.
Civil rights groups linked the killing to Huckabee’s comments supporting Israeli expansionism. The ADC said such statements “give permission and a green light for Israeli forces to use violence and empower settlers for further annexation and dispossession.”
“The U.S. Ambassador to Israel is authorizing and condoning actions that result in the lynching and murder of American citizens,” the ADC said in a statement.
After the shooting of Abu Siyam, a US State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the government was “aware of the death of a US citizen in the West Bank.”
“We are closely monitoring the situation and stand ready to provide consular assistance,” the spokesperson added.
But Charles Blaha, a senior adviser to the rights group DAWN who previously worked at the State Department, questioned the U.S. commitment to the safety of Palestinians.
“The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem have maintained that the protection of American citizens is their top priority,” Blaha told Al Jazeera.
“This is one of the first things the department teaches its incoming diplomats. But their failure to act on the killings of Americans in the West Bank by settlers and Israeli security forces betrays and suggests that Americans of Palestinian origin are not a priority.”
settler violence
Settler violence in the occupied West Bank, described by several former Israeli officials as “terrorism”, has increased in recent years.
Armed and operating under Israeli military protection, settlers frequently invade Palestinian towns and farmland, burning property and attacking those who disturb them.
The attacks, which have claimed the lives of three Palestinian Americans over the past year, coincide with Israeli government moves to tighten control of the West Bank, which experts say amount to a de facto annexation of illegally occupied territory.
“The US government’s inaction in the face of violence by Israeli settlers fostered a climate of impunity that facilitated the killing of Nasrallah Abu Siyam by Israeli settlers,” Blaha said.
Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR), also accused the US government of allowing Israel to commit human rights abuses over the years.
He cited the 1985 assassination of Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh in California, which activists say U.S. authorities failed to properly investigate. The perpetrators of this killing are suspected to be violent pro-Israel agents.
“From Alex Odeh to Abu Siyam, from occupied Palestine to here in the United States, the U.S. government refuses to hold Israel accountable for the killings of Palestinian Americans by its military and settlers,” Abu Zunayed told Al Jazeera.
“This is what history has shown us, and if the U.S. government disagrees, we are happy to prove otherwise. Until that day, we will see it as it is.”
