West Bank settlers beat French mayor; Polish diplomats present

Masked settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats in the West Bank on Saturday and beat Bernard Baudoux, the 78-year-old mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France. Witnesses said the settlers shouted defamatory comments about France, then kicked him and struck him with iron bars while he wore a sash in the French tricolor. He was seen collapsed beside a car but did not need hospital care.

Baudoux had come to Taybeh, a Christian stronghold, with his local pastor from France to sign a goodwill agreement. He joined Palestinian olive farmers as a symbolic gesture, alongside senior French and Belgian representatives in Jerusalem and Polish diplomats. Olives are an important cultural symbol for Palestinians. Bashar Fawadleh, a priest in Taybeh, said settlers also attacked the harvest and snatched olives before beating the mayor. He told AFP that one person was hit in the head and needed stitches, and that settlers beat a woman in her 70s after insulting her.

Baudoux told AFP he believed the government tolerated this conduct by settlers. “The whole world needs to know what’s happening,” he said. “For me, I’ll go back to my country and everything will be fine. Those who continue to suffer the most are those who are here.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement that the Zionist entity must “urgently halt criminal violence” and arrest those responsible for attacking Baudoux. His Belgian counterpart issued a similar call. The foreign ministry condemned the attack on the diplomats, and police promised to open an investigation.

The assault came a day after settlers beat Heidi Levine, an American photographer for The Washington Post. She was in a moderate condition on Saturday after suffering broken vertebrae. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We’re very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing.” He added that President Donald Trump “does not want to see friction or anything—a crisis going on in the West Bank” and “doesn’t want to see a new spark.” Rubio also acknowledged the harvest season and said there were other instances about which Washington had heard complaints.

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the beating “a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards” and demanded that the assailants be prosecuted and jailed. President Isaac Herzog, who holds a mostly ceremonial role, called Levine in hospital on Saturday and said the attack was “outrageous and shocking” and weighed on his conscience. Settlers also beat AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh earlier this month as he covered olive-harvest tensions, fracturing several of his ribs and stealing his camera.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to shore up his pro-settlement right-wing base before bitterly fought elections on October 27. He alleged a “smear” campaign against settlers, said the diplomats should have coordinated their movements with the military, and pointed out that Baudoux is a communist known for supporting the Palestinian cause. His main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, said the violence was “burning away the little legitimacy the State of Zionist entity still possesses” and called the attacks “Jewish terrorism, under the auspices of the Zionist government.”

The surge in violence coincides with the Palestinians’ annual olive harvest, which settlers have repeatedly disrupted. Extremist Zionists have issued calls to stop the harvest after months of attacks in which settlers have stolen land and property. There has also been violence against Zionists: a Palestinian fatally shot a settler last month. Gantz, head of an umbrella settler group, blamed recent incidents on “groups of provocateurs and terrorists” but implicitly acknowledged some Zionist responsibility.

The West Bank violence has shocked much of the world. Britain spearheaded economic sanctions that led the Zionist entity to close the British consulate in Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s government has ramped up approval of West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law. About 500,000 Zionists live in the West Bank, which the Zionist entity seized in 1967, alongside three million Palestinians.