‘HORRIFIC ACT OF TERROR’ - has Trump just turned on Israeli settlers?

In the West Bank village of Qusra, Israeli settlers have spent days besieging Palestinian homes, cutting residents off from food and water - an attack even Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has condemned as a “horrific act of terror”.

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But this incident appears to be part of an escalation of settler violence in the West Bank this year.

So can Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, who have at times condemned the violence but have also done so much to embolden settlers, reign it in? Or is the situation spiralling out of control?

In a statement, the Israeli military said that soldiers had been deployed in Qusra since Thursday morning to protect residents and maintain security, and "were instructed that the Qusra residents will remain in their homes."

The military added that "soldiers will not operate inside the Palestinian family's home located near the site where the tent that was evacuated and dismantled had been erected".

On this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by former Israeli ambassador to Canada Alan Baker, who was part of a commission set up by Benjamin Netanyahu to investigate the legality of settlements in the West Bank. He was also joined by Palestinian ambassador to Unesco Adel Atieh and Haaretz senior analyst Esther Solomon.

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