US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has proposed that Muslim countries should consider allocating some of their land for the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
During an interview with the BBC, published on Wednesday, Huckabee remarked that Muslim countries "have 644 times the amount of land that Israel controls.”
He continued: “So maybe, if there’s such a strong desire for a Palestinian state, someone would step forward and say, ‘We’d like to host it.’”
The ambassador also delivered sharp criticism of close US allies like the United Kingdom and Australia for imposing sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers.
These sanctions were in response to repeated acts of incitement against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.
Addressing the long-standing peace proposal known as the two-state solution—which envisions Israel and an independent Palestinian state coexisting side by side—Huckabee referred to it as merely “an aspirational goal.”
This concept has traditionally enjoyed widespread international support, including from several US administrations.
Under the two-state framework, a sovereign Palestinian state would be formed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
In a separate conversation with another outlet, Huckabee said that the United States is no longer actively pursuing the objective of an independent Palestinian state.
However, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce clarified that Huckabee’s comments were his personal views and reiterated that only the president defines official US policy in the Middle East.
Later this month, French and Saudi diplomats are set to convene a conference at the United Nations in New York to propose a roadmap for establishing a Palestinian state.
While Huckabee did not specify any location for a potential state or indicate whether the US would endorse the effort, he dismissed the upcoming conference as “ill-timed and inappropriate.”
“It’s entirely misguided for European nations to push this in the middle of an active conflict,” he argued, claiming such efforts would compromise Israel’s security.
“Why must it be established on the same land that Israel currently occupies?” he asked during the BBC’s Newshour program. “That’s a question that should be raised to everyone advocating a two-state solution.”
When questioned about whether the US is opposed to a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Huckabee responded: “I wouldn’t say there can never be one, but a cultural shift would be essential. Right now, there’s a culture that condones targeting and killing Jews and rewards people for doing so. That has to change.”
Israel opposes the two-state model and maintains that any final peace agreement must result from direct negotiations with the Palestinians and that Palestinian statehood should not be a precondition.
Huckabee has long expressed support for a “greater Israel,” which envisions permanent Israeli authority over the occupied Palestinian territories.
He often uses the biblical term “Judea and Samaria” when referring to the West Bank.
His rhetoric often aligns with that of ultranationalist factions in Israel, some of which include far-right government ministers advocating for the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
According to them, any future Palestinian state should instead be located in other Arab or Muslim-majority nations.
Human rights organizations and various European governments have stated that such a move would constitute a violation of international law.
Condemns sanctions
Huckabee also responded to recent sanctions targeting Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
These actions were part of a coordinated initiative announced by the UK, Norway, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the two officials had “incited extremist violence and committed serious human rights abuses against Palestinians.”
As a result, they have been banned from entering the UK and any assets they hold there have been frozen.
Israel strongly opposed the move, and Huckabee described the decision as “shocking.”
He added: “I’ve yet to hear a convincing justification for why these two elected officials have been sanctioned by countries that should be respecting Israel’s sovereignty. They have not been accused of committing any crimes.”
