Fleur Hassan-Nahoum and a group of influencers were attacked by stone-throwers in the West Bank while on a tour of the region with the settler activist group Regavim on Monday. Hassan-Nahoum and her group were travelling to the West Bank to see illegal Palestinian construction in the area. "We went to see facts on the ground." "Some villages would put Beverly Hills to shame — huge mansions," she told i24NEWS. The group entered the village of Turmus Ayya to "look around and take some pictures," but were immediately surrounded and told to leave, prompting them to turn the convoy around.
"What we didn't understand," Hassan-Nahoum said, "was that they had prepared an ambush for us." She described lots of teenagers "10-, 12-, 14-year-olds throwing rocks at us on the way out." She held up one of the stones that landed in the car, saying, "This is the type of boulder that could kill somebody." She praised the quick thinking of their guide who told them all to duck. "He's the reason we aren't in the hospital right now." Hassan-Nahoum was quick to condemn any vigilante settler groups that take the law into their own hands, but said that settlers in general face "10 times the attacks" that Palestinians face from vigilantes.
"The people in Judea and Samaria experience this on a daily basis," she said. She pointed to the IDF's arrest of more than 10 settler vigilante suspects as the main difference between settler violence and Palestinian attacks, asking, "Is the Palestinian Authority going to arrest them?" Hassan-Nahoum is currently running as a candidate for Ofer Winter's Amcha Israel party and took aim at the current government's policy of prolonged wars of containment, saying, "We can no longer afford forever wars.
We need to go back to the Ben-Gurion Doctrine of short, decisive wars." Suggested articles 'Even in politics, there are red lines': Amcha Israel speaks out after candidate resigns amid harassment campaign | i24NEWS Ofer Winter falls below electoral threshold two weeks before vote | i24NEWS Poll | i24NEWS Amcha Yisrael unveils framework for independent October 7 commission of inquiry | i24NEWS
i24News tells a settler group's tour of a Palestinian village through the words of one candidate. In its own voice it calls Palestinian building "illegal" and never says the West Bank is occupied or that the settlements are illegal. It leaves her claim that settlers face "10 times the attacks" unanswered, when its own reporting that day described a surge of settler attacks.
Uses the occupation's words
Serious
“illegal Palestinian construction”
Why this matters
In its own voice i24News calls Palestinian building in the West Bank "illegal", the label used by Regavim, the settler group leading the tour.
The impression it gives
A reader takes it as settled fact that Palestinians in the West Bank are the ones breaking the law, and that the tour was a neutral inspection of wrongdoing.
The context
The ICJ found the occupation unlawful and the settlements illegal under international law. The article never says the West Bank is occupied, never calls any settlement illegal, and attaches the word "illegal" only to Palestinians building in their own villages, on the say-so of a settler group.
How we know
On the recordThe International Court of Justice's July 2024 advisory opinion found Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem unlawful.icj-cij.org (opens in a new tab)
On the recordThe International Court of Justice's July 2024 advisory opinion found Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal under international law.icj-cij.org (opens in a new tab)
Elsewhere in the article“with the settler activist group Regavim”
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “occupied” and “occupation”.
Hassan-Nahoum and her group were touring the occupied West Bank with the settler group Regavim to see Palestinian construction that Regavim calls illegal. The International Court of Justice has found Israel's occupation unlawful and its settlements illegal.
Gives a contested claim the last word
Serious
“settlers in general face "10 times the attacks" that Palestinians face from vigilantes”
Why this matters
i24News reports Hassan-Nahoum's claim that settlers face ten times the attacks Palestinians face. It gives no figure, no source and no reply, and the article moves straight on to her campaign lines.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away believing that settlers, not Palestinians, are the main victims of violence in the West Bank.
The context
i24News's own reports that same weekend described settlers attacking an American journalist and European diplomats, and a US Secretary of State demanding Israel stop settler attacks on Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post reported an uptick in extremist settler violence during the olive harvest. None of this appears against her claim.
Hassan-Nahoum claimed, without giving a source, that settlers face ten times more attacks than Palestinians. i24News reported the same weekend that settlers had attacked an American journalist and European diplomats, and US officials called on Israel to stop settler attacks on Palestinians.