US envoy conducts first official visit to Israeli illegal settlement in occupied West Bank

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee conducted on Wednesday the first official visit by a US envoy to an Israeli illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, and met with settlement leaders in the area, Anadolu agency reported.

Israeli media outlets said Huckabee visited the illegal settlement of Shiloh and met with the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation representing settlement municipal authorities in the occupied 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 has reportedly claimed in a statement from the Yesha Council.

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

US ambassadors typically refrain from visiting the West Bank; part of the occupied Palestinian territories under international law and UN relevant resolutions.

Israel claims Shiloh, an ancient city mentioned in the Bible and a major center of worship for the Israelites, is located in the area.

The Palestinians, on the other hand, say that Tel Shiloh, located north of the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, is located on Palestinian land and that until the early 1980s, families from the village of Qaryut lived there.

Huckabee, known for supporting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on 21 April.

READ: Israel’s settlement expansion in West Bank ‘amounts to war crime’: UN rights chief