Mike Huckabee, facing a US Senate hearing for his confirmation as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, is facing close questioning from Democrats on his views on the potential for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but he avoided giving direct answers.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, asked Huckabee whether he thought it would be wrong for a Jewish settler to push a Palestinian family off land they own in the West Bank.
Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian, stood by past statements that Israel has a “Biblical mandate” to the land. He also responded by saying he believed in the “law being followed” and “clarity,” but also that “purchasing the land” would be a “legitimate transaction.”
Huckabee also said that any Palestinians living in an annexed West Bank would have “security” and “opportunity,” but wouldn’t answer Van Hollen’s questions about whether they would have the same legal and political rights as Jewish people.
Four pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupted the hearing in the Senate to decry Huckabee’s ardent support for Israel.
One blew a shofar, a ram’s horn used for Jewish religious purposes, and another shouted, “I am a proud American Jew!” then “Let Palestinians live!”
Police quickly grabbed the protesters, but their shouts could still be momentarily heard in the Senate hallway.
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and one-time Republican presidential hopeful, has taken stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that sharply contradict longstanding US policy in the region.
He has spoken favorably in the past about Israel’s right to annex the occupied West Bank and has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.
In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he doesn’t even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”
