US envoy Mike Huckabee says it would be ‘fine’ if Israel took all Middle East land... [Tucker] Carlson pointed out that this area in modern geography would include “like, basically the entire Middle East.... The Levant … Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon – it’d also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq...”

The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has contended to the podcaster Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to take over the entire Middle East – or at least the lion’s share of it.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said to Carlson during an interview posted on Friday. The Trump administration appointee and former Arkansas governor discussed with Carlson interpretations of Old Testament scripture within the US Christian nationalist movement.

Carlson – who recently made disputed claims that he was detained at Tel Aviv airport in Israel – asked Huckabee about a biblical verse in which God promises Abraham that his descendants will receive land “from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites”.

Carlson pointed out that this area in modern geography would include “like, basically the entire Middle East”.

“The Levant … Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon – it’d also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq,” Carlson said.

Huckabee said: “I’m not sure it would go that far, but it would be a big piece of land.”

He continued: “Israel is a land that God gave, through Abraham, to a people that he chose. It was a people, a place and a purpose.”

Pressed by Carlson on whether Israel has the right to that land, Huckabee responded: “It would be fine if they took it all...”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/20/mike-huckabee-israel-middle-east-tucker-carlson

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‘A violation of our history’: Palestinian uproar over Israel’s plan to seize historic West Bank site- Residents of Sebastia say heritage project is pretext for massive land grab and expansion of Jewish settlements

The expropriation of the site near Sebastia is the largest ever seizure of land for an archaeological project since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. Photograph: Jason Burke/The Guardian

Jason Burke and Sufian Taha in Sebastia

Mon 2 Feb 2026 06.52 EST

The Byzantine-era church lies half hidden in the shade. Roman columns rise from among the olive trees, even older ruins linked to Israelite kings are overgrown. To the west, the Mediterranean is just visible on the horizon. To the north and south are the hills of the occupied West Bank.

In the small town of Sebastia, a hundred metres or less east of the ruins, everyone is very worried.

In November, Mahmud Azem, the mayor of Sebastia, received a notice from Israeli authorities announcing the seizure of the whole of the sprawling hilltop archaeological site next to the town.

Though there have been reports of an Israeli government project to develop the site for several years, the notice came as a shock. Most of the 3,500 Palestinian residents depend on either tourism at the site or their olive trees for their livelihoods.

The current plans for development of the site involve a visitors’ centre, a car park, and a fence that will separate the ruins from the rest of the town, cutting residents off from the ruins and any olive orchards that survive.

“Unfortunately Sebastia has gone into a dark tunnel,” said Azem, 50. “It is an aggression against Palestinian landowners, against olive trees, against tourist sites and it is a violation of the history and the heritage of Palestine.”

The expropriation of 182 hectares (450 acres) at Sebastia is the largest ever seizure of land for an archaeological project since Israel occupied the West Bank after its victory against Syria, Egypt and their Arab allies in 1967... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/02/palestinian-uproar-israel-plan-seize-historic-site-sebastia-west-bank?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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Israel EXPANDS- erasing Palestine

From historic Palestine to today

https://www.sabeel-kairos.org.uk/partition-plan/

With thanks to Visualizing Palestine for their permission to use this resource. 

https://visualizingpalestine.org/downloadable-exhibit/ 

DISPLACEMENT

These visuals and images document Israel’s ongoing expulsion and erasure of Palestinians from their land. Often referred to as the ongoing Nakba, or catastrophe in English, Palestinians have endured displacement for generations.

FRAGMENTATION

Displacement is compounded by Israel’s deliberate attempts to separate Palestinians from each other, from their land, and from the world. Despite codifying apartheid and enacting a settler colonial state, Palestinians persist and navigate Israel’s systems of oppression to overcome fragmentation.

RETURN & FUTURE VISIONING

The right of return is central to the Palestinian struggle for liberation. We must imagine and dream about what is possible so Palestinians can exercise their right to return, and live in a world free from oppression and settler colonialism.

 

“A cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God’s divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land.”

Kairos Palestine Document

New: Kairos II – Faith in a time of Genocide

Our partner Kairos Palestine have launched their renewed Kairos document: A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, calling us to greater costly solidarity with the Palestinian people.

14 November 2025.

Kairos Palestine – The Palestinian Christian Initiative
A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide

We, the Palestinian Christian Ecumenical Initiative, issued the Kairos Palestine Document in 2009 — “A word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.” The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem heard this cry, welcomed it, and offered their support. Likewise, the document resonated widely, both locally and internationally. Then, as now, we gathered — women and men, clergy and laity — from across the different church families in Palestine. After prayer and reflection on the suffering of our people under occupation, we released that cry of hope in the absence of hope, affirming our faith in God and our love for our homeland, convinced that our struggle is ultimately about human life and dignity.

We live now in a time of genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement unfolding before the eyes of the world. This moment — a moment of truth — demands from us a new stand unlike any before it. It is both a decisive moment and. Today, we renew our stand for truth and our commitment to fundamental religious, theological and moral principles. We look at our reality and take a renewed stand, responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit deep within us, listening to the call of faith in this time of genocide. We renew our message of faith, hope, and love — offering a faith-inspired vision for the time after genocide.

You can read the full document here: Final_Kairos_document_II_English.pdf

 https://www.kairospalestine.ps/images/Final_Kairos_document_II_English.pdf

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‘A gift that cannot be sold’: the Palestinian family fighting to save their West Bank farm- For more than three decades, the Nassars have battled Israeli efforts to reclassify their property as ‘state land’

Daoud Nassar walks on his family’s farm near Nahalin in the occupied West Bank, with Israeli settlements in the background. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/29/palestinian-family-fighting-save-west-bank-farm-israel-settlers

Lorenzo Tondo and Sufian Taha in Wadi Salem

Mon 29 Dec 2025

In 1916, Daher Nassar, a Christian Palestinian farmer living south of Bethlehem, made a move considered more than unusual at the time. He bought a 42-hectare stretch of farmland on the slopes and valleys of Wadi Salem, and formally registered the purchase with the Ottoman authorities, who then ruled the region.

A few years later, after transferring the title to his son, Nassar did something even more extraordinary. He re-registered the deed under each successive administration – the British mandate, then the Jordanian government, and finally, after 1967, under Israeli occupation.

Today, that ageing, yellowing document is one of the family’s few shields against the loss of their land – a plot that lies near the town of Nahalin in the so-called Area C of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, coveted by settlers and by far-right Israeli ministers eager to see it annexed. In 1991, the Israeli authorities began a legal battle to declare the Nassar family’s farm Israeli “state land”, a precursor to claiming it for occupation.

“I received this land as a gift,” says Daoud Nassar, 55, Daher’s grandchild, who now owns the farm with his family. “My grandfather gave it to my father, who gave it to me and to my brothers and sisters, and we intend to pass it on to our children, and to their children after them. For us Palestinians, the land is a gift – and a gift cannot be sold or given away.”

Nestled in the olive-clad hills of the Judean desert, the Nassar farm survives without direct access to water or electricity – both were cut off by Israeli settlers in 1991 – with the family living partly in underground natural caves. It is the only place they are able to live, because since 1967 when the land was designed part of Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control, any structure – permanent or temporary – requires an Israeli permit. Almost none are granted.

In this way, the family resists Israeli occupation while hemmed in by five illegal settler outposts – one built right up against its boundary – and locked in a 34-year legal battle with the army, forced to water each olive tree by hand, carrying two glasses of water at a time.

To date, the legal battle between the Nassar family and the Israeli government is one of the longest-running cases in the history of the West Bank, and the longest among those still pending.

“Under Ottoman reign, Palestinian farmers and land owners did not register many of the lands, or reported reduced areas in order to avoid taxes, relying instead on oral traditions and local village records,” says Sliman Shaheen, a legal expert in land-related and demolition cases in the West Bank... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/29/palestinian-family-fighting-save-west-bank-farm-israel-settlers

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Nassar inside a natural cave on his family’s farm that has been converted into a small chapel, where mass is celebrated every Sunday.

Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

New Israeli barrier will slice through precious West Bank farmland- Palestinians who have worked the ‘breadbasket’ area for generations face being replaced by Israeli settlers... “All these [Palestinian] families have title deeds. They grow grapes, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, za’atar and olives. This land is very rich and that is the reason it is being taken. The whole aim is to take it over for settlers to use it.” Abdullah Bsharat: The council leader said he had been told by Israeli officers that the road and barrier would together be 50 metres wide, but Palestinian buildings or farmwork would not be allowed along a 200-metre cordon on either side.

Julian Borger and Quique Kierszenbaum in Atouf, West Bank

Sat 13 Dec 2025

THE GUARDIAN 

 

" “It is happening all through the Jordan valley, especially in the north. Israel is pushing forward, and accelerating the ethnic cleansing of this area,” said Dror Etkes, an Israeli activist who is the founder of the Kerem Navot organisation, which monitors Israeli land policy in occupied Palestine." 

The fertile land around the village of Atouf in the West Bank. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

The death knell for the Palestinian village of Atouf, on the western slopes of the Jordan valley, arrived in the form of a trail of paper, a series of eviction notices taped to homes, greenhouses and wells, marking a straight line across the open fields.

The notices, which appeared overnight, informed the local farmers that their land would be confiscated and that they had seven days from the date of their delivery, 4 December, to vacate their properties. A military road and accompanying barrier was to be built by Israel right through the area.

Lawyers for the Atouf village council have lodged an appeal, but long and bitter experience has taught Palestinians here to have low expectations of Israeli courts.

“The Israeli military can do anything they like. They don’t care about the law or anything else,” said Ismael Bsharat, a local farmer.

Similar eviction notices had been delivered on the same day all along an almost 14-mile (22km) strip of Palestinian farmland running north to south through Atouf, tracing out the route of the planned road and fence. And this week it became clear that this abrupt gash across Palestinian land was the first section of a new line of division that would redraw the map of the West Bank.

This week, Israel’s defence ministry made clear that this would mark only the first section of a new 5.5bn-shekel (£1.3bn) barrier that will eventually run 300 miles, from the Golan Heights on the Syrian border to the north all the way down to the Red Sea near Eilat. Labelled “Crimson Thread” by the Israeli military, the barrier will split countless Palestinian communities along its route... READ MORE    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/13/new-israeli-barrier-slice-through-precious-west-bank-farmland

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