Taybeh Mayor Says Town Preparing US Lawsuits Against Settlers and American Backers of Settlements

Taybeh has not filed a single lawsuit yet. What it has, according to its mayor, is a growing file of testimony from residents who say their land has been burned, stolen, or sealed off, and a plan to take that file to American courts instead of Israeli ones.

Mayor Suleiman Khourieh told Anadolu Agency that the municipality has contacted a US-based rights organization about bringing civil cases and is now collecting documentation from residents who have been attacked or lost access to their property. He did not name the organization, and no defendants have been identified publicly.

"We intend to file lawsuits in the US, because most of our lands are owned by people who hold American citizenship or green cards," Khourieh said.

The strategy leans on a demographic fact about Taybeh, the last predominantly Christian town northeast of Ramallah: a large share of its residents and landowners carry US citizenship or permanent residency, giving American courts a jurisdictional hook that Israeli courts do not offer in the same way. Khourieh said the town had already tried the Israeli legal system and found it produced no meaningful protection or accountability.

The mayor described the intended targets bluntly: "The lawsuits would target American Jews and American associations that support settlements," alongside settlers themselves. Residents have reported arson, property destruction, theft, and seizure of agricultural land as Taybeh has become increasingly encircled by settlements and unauthorized outposts. Khourieh said Palestinians have been blocked from accessing roughly 16,000 dunams of land belonging to the town, a figure he provided without independent verification.

The planning in Taybeh sits inside a documented spike in settler violence across the West Bank. UN figures cited by Reuters show at least 23 Palestinians killed and more than 1,000 injured in settler attacks between the start of 2026 and the end of August, following 16 killed and more than 1,100 injured through 2025. Israeli authorities have condemned such violence, but arrests are rare and prosecutions rarer still.

That pattern has drawn unusual criticism from inside the Trump administration's own diplomatic corps. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, a longtime backer of Israeli settlements, visited the nearby town of Turmus Ayya on Saturday and called violent settlers "terrorists," demanding prosecution. Turmus Ayya, like Taybeh, is home to many US citizens, and at least six Palestinian Americans have been killed in the West Bank since 2024.

For Taybeh, the appeal of US courts is that they might reach money and networks Israeli courts cannot: American donors, nonprofits, and individuals whose support helps sustain settlement activity. Khourieh said the goal is straightforward, to stop the attacks and hold people accountable after years of international statements changed nothing on the ground.