Israeli settlers attacked a group of European diplomats visiting the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the West Bank on Saturday. The Palestinian news agency Wafa and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz confirmed the account. The window of a Belgian consular vehicle was smashed. Belgian Consul General in Jerusalem Anick Van Calster and Bernard Baudoux, the 78-year-old French mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, were assaulted.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot condemned the attack on X the same day. He wrote that he condemned in the strongest terms the attack by masked settlers in Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, against Palestinians, Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives. He said a French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle was damaged. Prevot added that Palestinians face this violence every day and that it cannot be separated from Israel’s illegal settlement policy. He said Belgium condemns settlement expansion and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land, and that the occupation of the Palestinian territory must end.
The attacks followed a similar incident reported on Friday. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was attacked by masked Israeli settlers while with Palestinians gathering their autumn olive harvest. The Washington Post said she was wearing a vest marked PRESS on the front and back and was hospitalized because of her injuries.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation. Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray said some facts are neither in dispute nor unclear, that the photographer was clearly marked as press and that she was clearly beaten. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Saturday that he had spoken to Levine and that the despicable behavior of these criminals does not represent the citizens or values of the state.
Netanyahu’s office also urged caution before drawing conclusions from reports that European diplomats were attacked by masked Israelis in Judea and Samaria. The statement said any violence against diplomats is unacceptable and that the more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence. The office said Baudoux was a French Communist Party mayor who previously raised the Palestinian flag over his municipal building, and referred to concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest.
Judea and Samaria is the official name Israeli authorities use for the West Bank. The United Nations recognizes the territory as Palestinian but under Israeli occupation and maintains that all Israeli settlements there violate international law.