By Katarina Stefanovic of Storyful
Perth, Oct 17: Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers and beat a Washington Post photographer in the West Bank on October 16, the paper reported.
According to the report, photographer Heidi Levine was wearing a protective vest marked “PRESS” when she “was knocked to the ground, kicked repeatedly and stripped of her cameras and phone.”
Video here, from journalist Jasper Nathaniel, shows him helping Levine off the ground and escorting her to safety.
“They took all my stuff,” Levine tells him.
“They’re coming, they’re coming, run, run, run, run!” Nathaniel tells Levine.
“I can’t, let me die,” she says.
Nathaniel told Storyful Palestinian farmers went out to harvest their olives in the morning, in what was supposed to be a “peaceful celebratory process.”
“They were rushing, going as fast as they could because we could see on the top of the hill where there’s a settler outpost. There were settlers gathering, putting on masks, picking up clubs. It was clear they were planning an attack. Maybe after about an hour into the harvest, we saw the settlers, dozens of them, probably 50 or more, start charging down the hill.”
Nathaniel told Storyful settlers were throwing rocks and some Palestinian men who were in the fields threw stones and pushed the settlers back.
“Then the soldiers showed up and started tear gassing our side and, you know, we all got gassed, so we had to retreat, and as we were retreating, the settlers, with the cover of the military, were able to push forward.
“Then a white pickup truck came down the hill from behind the soldiers with masked settlers wearing all black with machine guns. They started firing the machine guns. As soon as that started happening, everybody just started running,” Nathaniel said.
As they ran away, Nathaniel said settlers surrounded Levine.
“[They] beat her, kicked her, clubbed her. I was able to see settlers, like, pulling her up off the ground to then kick her again. They were beating her with sticks.
“She was in very bad shape. She could barely move. We had to, you know, basically drag her out of the fields. As we were doing that, the settlers started charging again, throwing stones,” he said.
Nathaniel told Storyful they helped Levine get to Palestinian paramedics who put her in an ambulance.
The Israel Defense Forces said they were called to disperse the confrontation using “riot dispersal means” and would be examining all details of the incident.
“Violence against innocent civilians is a grave and intolerable phenomenon that requires a coordinated, multi-agency response. The IDF will work together with the relevant authorities to eradicate this phenomenon,” they said.
“The IDF strongly condemns this incident. Attempts to incite friction between populations undermine security in the area,” they added.
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