In first, US House speaker visits the occupied settlements in West Bank

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson arrived Monday in the West Bank as part of an official visit to the area, along with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and a delegation of members of Congress. This marks the first time a sitting U.S. speaker of the house has visited the West Bank.

The visit was initiated by the Yesha Council settler lobby in coordination with the U.S.-Israel Education Association, a conservative pro-Israeli advocacy group. The trip was not an official congressional delegation and was designated as a private trip, according to Axios.

Participating in the delegation were Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), as well as Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the head of the sponsoring organization, Heather Johnston. They met, together with Johnson and Huckabee, with local municipal leaders from Judea and Samaria, the Biblical names for the areas comprising the West Bank.