American citizens killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and the silence around it
More than a dozen Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and their own government has offered them almost nothing — bad news for Palestinian-American families and for anyone who assumes a US passport carries weight abroad.
- Sayfollah Musallet, a Florida-born American who ran an ice cream shop in Tampa with his father, was beaten to death by a mob of settlers in July 2025 while trying to reach family land; nobody has been punished.
- An ambulance was turned back and a second one waited hours for Israeli military permission — he died minutes before reaching it.
- His father, Kamel Musallet, says his own senator, Rick Scott of Florida, has refused to meet him; two more Americans have been killed by settlers since.
- Settlers keep taking land in villages where most owners are American citizens, and returning to the site now requires an armored car — a news crew that went was chased and attacked.
- A Catholic news outlet's political editor resigned after being told to cut coverage of Israel until the midterms, a policy shift that followed meetings with the US ambassador to the Vatican and donors.
Outlook: With no US investigation and Israeli court orders to remove the settlers going unenforced, the land takeovers and attacks look set to keep spreading.