(The Turkish Post) – About 80 Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians during the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah on Oct. 16, burning olive trees, throwing rocks and beating a U.S. photojournalist, according to witnesses and the journalist herself.
The assault was one of several settler attacks on olive pickers that day, in a harvest season that an Israeli monitoring group says has already seen at least 170 attacks since Sept. 27.
Olive harvest attack in Abu Falah
Witnesses said the settlers, many of them masked and some carrying gas canisters, came down a hill onto a terraced olive grove northeast of Ramallah where villagers were picking olives. Some carried clubs and slingshots. Palestinians threw rocks back.
Israeli military jeeps then drove into the area, and soldiers fired tear gas toward the Palestinians, according to witnesses. Gunfire was heard, and a photographer at the scene saw at least one armed settler fire a gun.
At least two people were injured in Abu Falah, Palestinian medics said. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated a 63-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man for injuries from beatings, and both were taken to hospitals in the Ramallah area.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.
Heidi Levine beaten by settlers
Heidi Levine, an American photojournalist working for The Washington Post, was among those beaten. Video from the scene showed her on a dirt path surrounded by at least three settlers.
“I was attacked, pushed to the ground. Luckily I had my flak jacket and helmet,” Levine said from her hospital bed. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me.” She said she “probably wouldn’t even be here” without the protective gear.
Levine said the beating stopped when Palestinian colleagues stepped in. She was taken by ambulance to a clinic in Abu Falah and then to a government hospital in Ramallah, where she was in stable condition.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, condemned the attack and called on the head of the Israeli military’s Central Command to act.
Olive harvest attacks across the West Bank
Earlier on Oct. 16, settlers attacked farmers picking olives in Turmus Ayya, also northeast of Ramallah, and burned three cars and olive trees. The Palestinian Civil Defense said one of its members was attacked while trying to put out a burning car.
At least six Palestinians were wounded in settler attacks on olive harvesters in several West Bank villages on Oct. 16, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and local reports.
“The settlers want to attack us and force us from our homes,” Moutaz Abdelhadi, a 42-year-old farmer, said. Another resident, Salah Abu Niswa, said the settlers “snuck up like thieves, they caught someone by himself and began to beat him.”
Journalists have been targeted before during this harvest. On Oct. 6, armed settlers beat Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old photographer for a French news agency, near the village of Aqraba south of Nablus while he covered attacks on olive farmers. He was taken to hospital in Nablus with bruises to his head and torso. A colleague who was with him said about a dozen armed Israeli soldiers were positioned roughly 500 meters away and did not intervene, and that the attackers took Ashtiyeh’s camera equipment.
Palestinian monitors recorded at least 19 settler attacks across the West Bank on Oct. 9 alone.
Yesh Din, an Israeli group that monitors settler violence, has counted at least 170 settler attacks since Sept. 27, around the start of the olive harvest.
Settlements and international law
About 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank alongside at least 3 million Palestinians. UN bodies and most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law. Israel disputes this and describes the territory as disputed rather than occupied.
