The persistent violence from Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank has become such common fare it risks becoming banal. Unfortunately, it takes events such as those befalling veteran photojournalist Heidi Levine of The Washington Post and European diplomats to return the attention to something that is not only grotesque but programmatic.

On 16th October, while covering the annual olive harvest in the West Bank Levine, fellow journalists and a group of Palestinians became the ripe targets of Israeli settlers.  The auguries of violence were already present: over the course of 24 days since the season commenced, 125 physical attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters had been reported.  After an initial gathering at a hilltop in the proximity of Abu Falah, the numbers of the assailants ominously swelled.  They approached the group menacingly, burning olive trees on route.  Then came tear gas and shots.  A Palestinian was wounded in the leg.

Levine, in her description, was forced to the ground.  “They just kept kicking me and hitting me with sticks, and it just kept going on and on.  And then I actually thought, okay, maybe I’ll just play dead and pretend I’m dead, and they’ll stop and they’ll leave me alone.”  The decision failed to yield the desired result.

Levine, in her description, was forced to the ground.  “They just kept kicking me and hitting me with sticks, and it just kept going on and on.  And then I actually thought, okay, maybe I’ll just play dead and pretend I’m dead, and they’ll stop and they’ll leave me alone.”  The decision failed to yield the desired result.

Her camera bag, lenses, pouch filled with her US passport, credit cards, documents and relevant items were seized.  She was hauled to her feet.

Eventually, a group of Palestinian men intervened to stand “in front of me to protect us, me and my rescuers from being attacked again.”  Without that involvement, the group “would have been in the same situation as me.”  In that encounter, Levine suffered a broken rib, a broken vertebra and a severe finger........

© Middle East Monitor