Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in a coordinated movement to disrupt the annual olive harvest, burning cars and trees and injuring Palestinians and a Washington Post photographer. Masked settlers wielding clubs and other weapons attacked people attempting to harvest their olives in West Bank towns on Friday. Palestinian authorities said they recorded attacks in eight villages, and injuries among at least 20 people.
It was the latest series of attacks in a deadly campaign of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in recent months, violence which has drawn accusations of “ethnic cleansing”, including from the British government. In the town of Abu Falah, near Ramallah, at least 80 settlers, some of whom were carrying firearms or clubs, gathered to stop Palestinians from harvesting their olives, using slingshots to hurl rocks at the farmers in view of Israeli military vehicles. When some of the Palestinians then picked up rocks to defend themselves, the Israeli military fired teargas in their direction.
The Israeli Foreign Press Association said in a statement: “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.” Among those injured was the Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was beaten by settlers in an attack that lasted more than 10 minutes, according to witnesses. Settlers stole her passport, phone, wallet and equipment.
Luckily, I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn’t even be here, because they just kept kicking and kicking me,” Levine said from a hospital bed in Ramallah. She said the attack ended when her Palestinian colleagues intervened to save her. In a statement, the Washington Post said Levine had been wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist.
The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the facts surrounding the attack on Levine were “unclear”, suggesting the attack was the fault of “200 Arabs and far-left activists” who confronted Israeli youths. The office added that it condemned “violence against anyone”. There has been a surge of settler violence against Palestinians over the past month.
Settlers have carried out at least 170 attacks since 27 September, around the start of the annual olive harvest, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group. Every year, settlers attack Palestinians trying to harvest their olives, but there has been a rise in violence this year as Israel’s elections approach at the end of October. At least four Palestinians had been killed and more than 100 others injured over the past month, Palestinian authorities said.
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