Star Metro - Palestinian-American hoists US flag on home besieged by settlers

Louai Abu Ridi, who owns one of three houses in Qusra, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, flew back from his adopted home of Ohio on Monday after settlers trapped residents inside and refused to let in food or other supplies for more than a week.

He was flying the Stars and Stripes outside his home on Tuesday and said he has asked the US embassy to keep raising his case.

"It's my message to all Americans in the United States to see what's going on here in the West Bank, how the settlers put us under siege trying to take my own house in the West Bank," Abu Ridi told AFP reporters inside his home.

Under US pressure, the Israeli military said last week it had given orders to remove the settlers.

Troops took down their tent and detained one Israeli but settlers repeatedly came back by foot or in vehicles.

"The settlers come in freely into my house and they're not doing anything," he said of the soldiers.

"They even shake hands with the settlers. It's like they're friends."

- Rare US criticism -

Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been increasingly harassing and assaulting Palestinian residents in recent months, often with an aim to take their property.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has pushed to support settlements backed by the Jewish right ahead of close-fought October 27 elections.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor who has long supported settlers, has offered rare criticism over the Qusra siege and said he had asked Israel to intervene.

In interviews aired late Tuesday on Israeli television, Huckabee said the United States was committed to defending its own citizens.

"We would like to see severe consequences for people who engage in -- and I'll use the term -- terrorist activity," Huckabee told Channel 13.

"It's not fair to the families who are Palestinian, who own their homes, who have a right to raise their families without fear," said Huckabee, who before becoming ambassador had rejected the term Palestinian.

Of the extremist settlers, Huckabee said, "If this little minority, if they think they're doing their cause a favour, they are making a horrific mistake."

Around 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank on settlements considered illegal under international law, amid three million Palestinians. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.

O.Poirier--SMC