“This is a political message to the US government. I am a US citizen and have all the rights of a citizen, including having the US Embassy protect me and my home,” said on Palestinian American. [Getty]
In one of the most contradictory scenes in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians who hold US citizenship are flying the US flag above their homes, despite knowing that the United States is the Israeli occupation’s biggest supporter and arms supplier.
US flags flutter lightly above homes in the towns of Turmusaya and Qusra in the occupied West Bank, but the disappointments on the ground are heavy.
No one is protecting tens of thousands of Palestinians from settler attacks on their homes and land, so each of them has begun thinking about individual ways out, even if that means flying the US flag above their home as a last cry for help.
Businessman Louay Abdel Moneim Abu Rida, 46, from Qusra, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport (Lydda) on Monday evening, 17 August.
Upon his arrival, a team from the US network CNN took him to his home, which is surrounded by Israeli forces in Qusra.
The first thing Abu Rida did was raise the US flag over his home, which overlooks the settlements surrounding his town, as well as numerous outposts seeking to swallow up his home and land as they continue to expand.
In this context, Abu Rida told The New Arab, “I had a CNN team with me, and I came to my home in their car from the Israeli airport. They are a team holding US and French citizenships. Despite being with me, the soldiers stopped me for about half an hour in front of my home before allowing me to enter it.”
Abu Rida, like everyone else, understands that US journalists in particular have immunity and that Israeli forces cannot target them as they do Palestinian journalists, as none of them can approach Ras al-Ain Hill.
“I am currently under siege, and I am asking the US Embassy to help lift the siege on my home,” Abu Rida described. “The Israeli army is supposed to be stationed in front of my home to remove the settlers, but since 13 Aug. this year, it has been unable to do so. Last Tuesday, a settler attacked the garden of my home, and the soldiers negotiated with him to leave instead of forcibly preventing him from doing so.”
Regarding the reason he raised the US flag, Abu Rida said, “This is a political message to the US government. I am a US citizen and have all the rights of a citizen, including having the US Embassy protect me and my home.”
“I am a Palestinian American. I left behind a luxurious home, several cars and my family, and came to Qusra because my home in my birthplace is important to me. I asked the US Embassy to visit me at my home, and my request is being considered, according to what they told me,” he added. “I want the US Embassy to come here and see the US flag raised over the home of a US citizen. If the settlers succeed in taking over my home, they will remove this flag and replace it with an Israeli flag. Is this permitted under US law?”
US flags had been flying over homes in the town of Turmusaya near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for months, for the same reasons Abu Rida raised his flag.
Abu Rida is one of 400 Palestinians from Qusra in the occupied West Bank who hold US citizenship and live there, returning to the town during the summer holidays and on special occasions, according to Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi, who spoke to The New Arab.
Lawyer Yasser Alqam, a member of the Turmusaya municipal council and one of the Palestinian American citizens who have been flying the US flag above their homes for months, told The New Arab, “In short, we are now clinging to a straw to save our homes from the occupation and settlers.”
Alqam, 58, who has held US citizenship since birth, explained, “The Palestinian American has seen that there is no one who serves as a point of reference to protect him, whether at the level of the Palestinian Authority or the occupation.”
According to Alqam, “Over the long decades we lived in the United States, if we had any problem or someone attacked us, we would call the police to protect us.”
“But when we come to the occupied West Bank because we live between America and here, we find that things are very different and that Israel and its army support the settlers and protect them, while no one protects us,” he added.
Messages behind raising the flag
“Raising the US flag carries several messages,” Alqam said. “First, for deterrence for the settlers; there could be legal consequences for burning or seizing the home of a US citizen. Second, it is an embarrassing message to the US administration and the US Embassy, whose citizens are being attacked. Third, raising the flag means asking the US administration and its embassy to stop supporting the occupation.”
“I am a US citizen, and the government transfers my tax money to support Israel, and the latter uses these taxes to kill us and destroy our homes,” Alqam noted. “This debate is currently growing in the United States and did not exist before in this form.”
Asked whether raising the US flag had achieved its objectives and had come to provide protection, Alqam said, “First, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
“There was a practical experience in Turmusaya about two weeks ago involving the famous New York neurosurgeon Hassan Shukri. After he arrived at his home in Turmusaya, where he spends the summer holiday with his family, the occupation army stormed Turmusaya and turned the house opposite his into a military post,” Alqam continued. “They actually spent 72 hours in his neighbour’s house and later decided to move to Dr Shukri’s home. He holds US citizenship and flies the US flag above his home, and they expelled him and his family from their home.”
Alqam noted, “We filmed the soldiers and sent the video to the US Embassy and the US State Department as well. We sent messages saying that the presence of the occupation army in a home flying the US flag constitutes a challenge to the United States. After four hours, the Israeli army withdrew from Dr Shukri’s home and apologised to him.”
He further said that “the irony is that the occupation army withdrew from Dr Shukri’s home, which flies the US flag, after four hours, while it spent three days in his neighbour’s home. Both neighbours hold US citizenship, but the doctor raised the flag and his neighbour did not.”
“During this period, the US Embassy and State Department have become more responsive to our messages and calls because of the media focus on the presence of Palestinian Americans,” Alqam said. We expect a visit early next month by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to the town of Turmusaya.”
Asked whether raising the US flag insults the Palestinian Authority, Alqam said, “Quite the opposite. There is no intention whatsoever to insult the Palestinian Authority because it is, in fact, an authority under occupation, just like any Palestinian citizen.”
“The Palestinian Authority is constantly asking the European Union and the United States to help it against the brutal Israeli practices,” he added.
Raising the US flag does not appear to be universally accepted in Turmusaya, where there is a heated debate in the town between those who oppose and those who support raising it.
In this context, Turmusaya municipal council member Awad Abu Samra, who is also a member of Fatah, told The New Arab, “I oppose raising the US flag over the homes of the town because America is occupying Palestine by funding Israel, and it is funding our killing.”
He pointed out that months ago, there was a heated debate about a group of citizens’ view that the Palestinian flag should be raised over the town’s facilities funded by residents of the town.
“Most of them are US citizens and pay taxes in the United States, while the occupation comes at all times to destroy the roads and facilities. But there was opposition to this,” Abu Samra remarked.
According to Abu Samra, Turmusaya is one of the Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank with the highest number of Palestinians holding US citizenship.
“The proportion of Turmusaya residents holding US citizenship is about 90 per cent of the town’s residents. The population of Turmusaya is 16,000, of whom 6,000 live in the town permanently. There are thousands of expatriates who live between the United States and the town and hold US citizenship,” he said.
Anyone entering Turmusaya in the occupied West Bank may realise that they are entering a wealthy town, with buildings and luxurious villas covered in red tiles and surrounded by orchards, as well as swimming pools.
The town becomes crowded during the summer months when expatriates return for school holidays and the wedding season.
It is normal to enter any supermarket in the town and hear an American accent in everyday conversations among elderly people, children and shopkeepers or among teenagers as they talk in the street.
Notably, nine of the 11 members of the Turmusaya municipal council hold US citizenship.
Thousands of Palestinians hold dual Palestinian and US citizenship, most of them concentrated in the cities of Al-Bireh and Ramallah and their villages in the occupied West Bank, such as Turmusaya, Deir Dibwan, Silwad and Al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiya, among others.
Most of them are from families that migrated to the United States in the last century and maintained their ties with Palestine across generations.
The issue of the US flag is not the only matter of disagreement and debate among Palestinians—there is also the question of how the United States is viewed by people who lived there for decades and loved it as a country, rather than for its foreign policy.
In this context, Mohammad Rabie told The New Arab, “Before my son was killed, I used to hang the US flag on my home. Even months after his death, the flag remained raised. But my relatives and friends gently and kindly blamed me because the United States is responsible for his death just like Israel, so I removed it.”
Rabie, who is from Turmusaya, recounts the day his son was killed on 6 April 2025: “Amer was no more than 14 years old, meaning he was a child.”
“He was with his friends eating green almonds in one of the village’s fields. Nevertheless, the occupation fired 36 bullets at him from several guns, and even after he was killed, they continued shooting at him from point-blank range while he was on the ground, on the pretext that he had thrown stones,” he added.
Distinguishing Trump from America
“A senator in the state of New Jersey, where I live in the United States—the state has two senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim—asked me if I wanted an investigation,” Rabie said. “I said yes, so he sent a letter to Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and another letter to President Donald Trump. So far, I have not received any response to these letters.”
“No one from the embassy, State Department, or any of these official bodies has formally contacted me to take my statement legally,” he said.
Rabie, 50, works as a building contractor in Turmusaya, while his older sons work in the United States and travel between Turmusaya and New Jersey.
Regarding why he placed a picture of his martyred son between the Palestinian and US flags in his living room, Rabie said, “I am a Palestinian American, and my martyred son was also one. The United States should not be reduced to Trump and his group and everyone who supports Israel. There is a wonderful country with good and honest people who genuinely stand in solidarity with Palestine. Palestine is my country and so is America.”
He stressed that “there is currently a change taking place among younger generations in the United States in favour of the Palestinian cause, and I believe it will continue in favour of us Palestinians.”
Sam Bahour, a businessman and expert in Palestinian-American relations, told The New Arab that he believes “what is currently happening with the raising of US flags is somewhat useful in terms of promoting the Palestinian cause to the world.
“It is a cry that attracts the attention of the press, but it will not attract serious attention from the US administration because the United States is an integral part of the occupation that we Palestinians are suffering from. Any visit by a US Embassy official to Turmusaya, Qusra or Al-Taybeh means absolutely nothing on the ground and will not stop settler attacks,” Bahour said.
Asked whether there are statistics on the number of Palestinian Americans, Bahour explained that there are no accurate statistics on the number.
“What foreign agencies have published about between 45,000 and 60,000 Palestinians holding US citizenship are Israeli figures that cannot be trusted and are not from the US Embassy,” he opined.
Bahour, 62, said he believes that “the US Embassy will not deal with Palestinian Americans as white American citizens.”
“Everything we see in the media in terms of visits or statements is merely symbolic. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority does not properly use the presence of thousands of Palestinians holding US passports on the global stage. It is content to be a spectator. Change is currently happening in the United States, whether flags have been raised in Turmusaya or Qusra or not,” he concluded.
Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here.