Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine remains hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital in central Israel after Jewish rioters beat her on Friday near Ramallah. The hospital said Saturday that her condition was moderate, that she had injuries to her limbs and that she had undergone surgery earlier that day. One of her fingers was nearly severed.
Her son, Michael Milner, who has lived in Poland in recent years, told Ynet that she was in terrible pain despite wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet. He said surgeons worked on her hand after a significant part of one finger was scraped away, the skin torn off and its function affected. The injury was to her left hand, and she is right-handed. He said she would be unable to work for the next few weeks. She had flown from Ukraine, where she was covering the war, to cover the elections.
Milner said he was shocked that people who riot with such violence are not held accountable. He criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office for calling the attack alleged and the circumstances unclear and under investigation, while condemning violence against civilians and journalists. Milner said videos and photographs show the assault. He said his mother told him a young man lifted her so he could steal more from her, then threw her down and the group kicked her. She has puncture wounds on her back, stitches over her body and bruises, and she kept her face toward the ground.
According to Milner, Levine clearly saw that some attackers wore tzitzit, screamed and begged them to stop, and was still targeted with stones after a colleague helped her up. He had planned to visit Israel next week to vote and moved his trip forward. He is at her bedside and said she cannot move. He said no one from the government had contacted her. His father, Moshe Milner, was once a prime minister’s photographer, including in the time of Golda Meir and for Netanyahu. Levine has photographed Israel for 43 years as a pool photographer for the foreign press.
Milner said he was offended that social media posts call her a leftist traitor. He said she has repeatedly risked her life covering wars between Israel and Lebanon and wounded soldiers, and during the war with Iran sent photographs that appeared on front pages around the world. He argued that the Shin Bet’s Jewish terrorism unit should be restored and called it a failure that police cannot enter Areas A and B and are not making arrests. He said that for more than a year she had described attacks in Palestinian communities, including people burned while she was inside a house, and sent videos of people attacking her as she filmed from Palestinian homes. He said she has, on other occasions, photographed soldiers praying alongside rioters, and that the violence also causes strategic damage abroad.
Levine was attacked near the Palestinian village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, while covering the annual olive harvest. Palestinian accounts said about 80 masked Jewish rioters came down from a hillside above terraced olive groves. Levine said she was thrown to the ground and kicked, probably 50 times, for about 10 minutes while trying to protect her cameras and bag. She told The Associated Press that her vest was marked PRESS and that without the vest and helmet she probably would not have survived. She called the attackers Jewish terrorists, doubted they would face justice and said she could not understand how a parent could raise people who act that way.
President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken with Levine, apologized and condemned the attack and other violence, including events that day in Taybeh. He said Israel must investigate, identify those responsible and bring them to justice. Members of Commanders for Israel’s Security, former senior defense and security officials, sent Levine a letter of apology, objected to what they described as encouragement of violence by senior officials and lawmakers, and called for a change in government policy.