Settler violence in the West Bank this weekend has left several people injured, with at least one victim requiring hospitalization. Military responses to these violent incidents left at least one other hospitalized. The attacks this weekend went beyond the usual Palestinian victims. An American journalist was severely beaten on Friday, and a convoy of diplomats and dignitaries from France, Poland, and Belgium was attacked on Saturday. While ten arrests have been made, actual indictments against settlers for violence in the West Bank are immensely rare, and convictions are rarer still. The Israeli government, especially Prime Minister Netanyahu, has also attempted to downplay and deny the severity of this weekend’s events, likely due to the upcoming Israeli election scheduled for October 27th.
These attacks have occurred against the backdrop of (and sometimes in the context of) the olive harvest season. This approximately one-month long period is incredibly important to the livelihoods of many Palestinians, with as many as 100,000 families relying on the harvest for all or part of their livelihoods and the olives harvested making up a major pillar of Palestinian exports and the Palestinian GDP. This makes the harvest season a flashpoint of violence, as settlers often seek to obstruct the harvest through force, steal the olives for themselves, or destroy Palestinian trees and groves.
It was in this olive harvesting context that the weekend’s first major violent incident occurred. At approximately 8 a.m. IDT on Friday the 16th, settlers dressed in black descended on the village of Khirbet Abu Falah, about 14 miles south of Nablus. The settlers were armed with slingshots, clubs, heavy stones, and at least one firearm. Some olive trees were set on fire while some residents fled, and others skirmished with the settlers in an attempt to defend the olive trees and their fleeing neighbors. While these attacks, skirmishes and related beatings produced casualties among Palestinians, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was trapped behind the settler line. Levine, 63, was wearing body armor and was clearly tagged as a journalist but was knocked to the ground and severely beaten while prostrate. She was taken to a hospital, where her injuries were recorded as a broken rib and lacerations on her legs, rear end and hip, as well as a serious cut on her left hand, according to her family. New York Times journalists arrived on the scene at approximately 9:30 a.m. when attacks were ongoing, with Israeli military and security forces arriving afterwards. Tear gas was deployed to clear the area, with journalists hearing live gunfire. During the military response, NYT journalists recorded a group of Palestinians sprinting past Israeli soldiers. The soldiers chased one of the men, Abed Aljaber Obied, and shot him in the leg. Mr. Obied was eventually released by the soldiers and transported by an ambulance in stable condition.
The next day, Saturday the 17th, violence occurred near the village of Taybeh, about four miles south of Khirbet Abu Falah. A diplomatic convoy of officials and dignitaries from France, Belgium, and Poland had arrived to observe the olive harvest in that area and to show solidarity with Palestinian residents. Settlers, masked and armed with clubs, arrived and attacked both the harvesters and the convoy, beating a Palestinian teenager and getting into a fight with one of the European dignitaries, a French mayor whose city had just become a “sister city” to Taybeh. Additionally, a window of a Belgian diplomatic vehicle was smashed. Israeli activists opposed to settler violence attempted to reach the site of the attacks that day but were blocked by a roadblock set up by settlers armed with clubs.
While both of these incidents were vigorously condemned by American and European authorities, Prime Minister Netanyahu minimized the events. In response to the attack on the Washington Post journalist his office stated, “The facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation.” In response to the attack on European officials, his office said they would “urge caution before drawing conclusions” due to “concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel”.
Israeli Police Detain 10 Over Violent Settler Attacks in West Bank – The New York Times
