Author: Sam Metz | 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 foreign journalist, in the latest violence to disrupt the territory’s annual olive harvest this month.
Local officials and the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported attacks in at least eight villages in the northern West Bank, where most of the olive groves are concentrated and tens of thousands of Palestinian families depend on them for income.
Settler violence against Palestinians has soared this year and spiked further in the weeks leading up to Israel’s election on October 27. The far-right Government that has emboldened the settlers could soon be voted out of power — or win another term.
Israeli authorities have done little to stop the attacks, according to residents and rights groups, who say the military has aided, protected or stood by as settlers lay siege to Palestinian villages. The violence has drawn accusations of “ethnic cleansing” — including from the British Government, which said Israel was turning a “blind eye” to the campaign underway.
“Soldiers aren’t stopping the violence or protecting Palestinians,” said Ziv Stahl, executive director of Israeli rights group Yesh Din. “If anything, they’re sometimes assisting settlers in the attacks.” The West Bank has been under Israeli military rule since the 1967 West Asia war and today is home to around 3 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last month that more than 1,600 attacks across the territory had been reported between January and August. Yesh Din and other rights groups say authorities rarely arrest or indict the perpetrators. Israel’s military on Friday condemned the violence and acknowledged that a journalist had been injured in Abu Falah. Settlers attacked the village as residents, accompanied by peace activists, set out early for the harvest.
Journalist reports being attacked
As the group of masked vigilantes approached, several members beat Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was hospitalized for her injuries.
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 that her helmet and protective vest, which was marked “PRESS,” likely saved her from more serious injuries.
Israeli troops later arrived in Abu Falah and drove up to the village after dispersing the crowd in the olive groves. Residents said that soldiers later fired live ammunition at village council member Abdel Jaber Hassan, even though he was unarmed and far from the trees. The military said that soldiers had fired because an individual was running toward them with a sharp object.
At least four Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 injured since harvest season began earlier this month, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said last week. Yesh Din said on Friday that it had already documented hundreds of incidents of settler violence directly related to this year’s harvest. In Turmus Ayya, a village northeast of Ramallah, mayor Nawaf Zghoul said settlers early Friday had burned several cars amid the hamlet’s surrounding olive groves.