Masked Settlers Attack European Diplomats and a French Mayor in the Christian Town of Taybeh
The visitors had joined Palestinian olive harvesters. Israel's police and military condemned the assault, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked Israel to "crack down."
By Watchman Report staff ·
Masked Israeli settlers attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and the Catholic archbishop of Cambrai on Saturday on land belonging to Taybeh, a Christian town in the occupied West Bank, The Guardian and the AP reported. The group had joined the olive harvest along with the French consul general in Jerusalem and the Belgian and Polish consuls. Bernard Baudoux, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France, who was wearing his official sash, was knocked to the ground and beaten; he described men with metal bars. The window of a Belgian diplomatic car was smashed. Settlers also assaulted a Palestinian woman in her 70s and beat a man who needed six stitches, The Guardian reported.
Israel's military called the attack a "severe act of violence," and police opened an investigation, the AP reported. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned the attacks and said diplomats risk violence if they travel without military coordination. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against "premature conclusions." Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot condemned the violence and said Belgium would keep pushing for European Union sanctions on settlers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, "We're very disturbed by those images," and that the U.S. has asked Israel "to crack down on that stuff."
The attack came a day after settlers severely beat Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine as she covered the harvest; she needed surgery and is in moderate condition. The Israeli rights group Yesh Din says settlers have carried out more than 170 attacks since the harvest began Sept. 27, and Palestinian authorities say at least four people have been killed. Taybeh's parish priest, Father Bashar Fawadleh, called the attack "a deeply disturbing escalation." Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot called it "Jewish terror."
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