Israelis beat Washington Post journalist in military-backed West Bank raids 

TEHRAN — The men came down from a hilltop settlement shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday, dressed in black, carrying slingshots and batons. At least one had a gun. By the time they finished, olive groves around Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, were burning, villagers were bleeding, and an American photographer for The Washington Post lay on the ground being kicked. Heidi Levine wore a helmet and a vest marked “PRESS” front and back. Videos show settlers beating her with bats and sticks as she lay prostrate.

“They just kept kicking me and kicking me,” she told reporters. Her cameras and phone were taken. She suffered four broken vertebrae and a broken rib. Soldiers arrived while the attack was under way. They fired tear gas at Palestinians, then shot village council member Abdel Jaber Hassan in the leg. The Israeli military claims he ran at troops with a sharp object. Residents say he carried harvesting tools. Activist Jonathan Pollak, who was there, said soldiers stood “shoulder-to-shoulder with settlers.”

Abu Falah was one of at least eight villages hit on Friday, with cars and trees burned in Turmus Ayya. Yesh Din has logged at least 170 attacks since the harvest began on September 27. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports at least four Palestinians killed and more than 100 injured this season. Ali Hassan al-Bazzari, 44, was killed near Nablus on October 7. A day earlier, settlers beat AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh with rifle butts.

Ziv Stahl from the Israeli organization Yesh Din says soldiers are “assisting settlers.” The same day, Rabbi Dov Lior, “spiritual guide” of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, ruled that settlers may take Palestinian olives, calling it an “additional virtue.” Analysts see political pressure behind that, an effort to present the arsonists as a few Hilltop Youth rather than a movement. Israel is scheduled to vote on October 27, and Ben-Gvir is hunting settler ballots.

Washington’s response followed the usual script. The State Department condemned violence “by any party,” as if victim and attacker shared the blame. Senator Chris Van Hollen asked, “When will Trump and Rubio DO SOMETHING?” Representative Ro Khanna demanded an end to aid that funds settler activity. Meanwhile weapons keep flowing. Levine is far from the first reporter hit. Sara Qudah of the Committee to Protect Journalists called the beating part of a “disturbing pattern.”

CPJ counts at least 247 journalists and media workers killed since October 2023, 241 of them by Israel, more than any government it has tracked since 1992. Shireen Abu Akleh, an American citizen, was killed in Jenin in 2022 while wearing a press vest. Nobody has answered for it. Abu Falah’s mayor, Nazem Saleh Shuman, said settlers burned three cars there recently. “It’s become a hell for us,” he added. “We have nowhere else to go.”