By Sam Metz and Leo Correa
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to cars and trees and beating residents and a Washington Post photographer, in the latest violence to disrupt the territory’s annual olive harvest this month.
Settlers attacked the village as residents, accompanied by peace activists, set out early for the harvest.
As the group of masked vigilantes approached, several members beat Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was hospitalized for her injuries.
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The perpetrators — armed with bottles and slingshots — “were kicking me for like 10 minutes and I was trying to hold onto my cameras and my bag,” Levine said.
Levine said her helmet and protective vest, which was marked “PRESS,” likely saved her from more serious injuries.
Israel’s military on Friday condemned the violence and acknowledged that a journalist was injured in Abu Falah.
Both the Washington Post and the Foreign Press Association, which represents international journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, called on Israel to bring the attackers to justice.
“This is the latest in a long line of violent attacks by Israeli settlers against journalists and other civilians in the occupied West Bank. Yet our repeated calls for action to confront this lawlessness have been ignored by Israeli authorities,” the Foreign Press Association said.
The U.S. State Department said that “we condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and support appropriate investigations as well as legal accountability for those responsible,” adding that it has reached out to The Washington Post to offer consular assistance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly framed settler violence in the West Bank as the work of a few dozen fringe youths and said its scale has been exaggerated.
He condemned the violence in Abu Falah on Friday but questioned whether Palestinians and activists were to blame. Without mentioning accounts of how the attacking settlers descended on the groves, he framed the violence as a clash between outnumbered Israeli youths against Palestinians and activists.
“We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria,” his office said in a statement, referring to the West Bank by the biblical name preferred by Israeli settlers.
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