Israeli court extends detention of 6 men over attacks on foreigners

Netanyahu questions attack accounts despite video evidence

An Israeli court on Monday extended the detention of six men connected with the attacks on foreigners in the occupied West Bank to between three and four days. The ruling came hours after Israeli police released footage of a rare raid on settlers and said they had detained 10 people connected with the attacks on foreigners and the construction of an illegal outpost.

The weekend of what the Guardian described as extreme violence in the occupied West Bank began Friday, when a group of masked Israeli men knocked down, kicked and beat photojournalist Heidi Levine as she covered the olive harvest in a Palestinian village. The men broke four vertebrae and ripped open her finger so it required surgery, leaving her with lacerations across her body.

“I was practically, basically lynched by a gang of Jewish settlers in the area of Ramallah,” Levine said, in an interview with the BBC from her hospital bed on Monday.

Levine said her body armor and helmet prevented even more serious injuries and that she considered herself “lucky” given the ferocity of the attack. Netanyahu’s attempt to cast doubt on the attack felt like “a big slap on my face,” she added. She said the global focus on her attack highlighted extreme double standards: “People are dealing with this, undergoing attacks, losing property, losing family members, being injured all across the West Bank and nothing is being done.”

The day after Levine’s assault, Israeli militants armed with sticks and iron bars attacked a group of European diplomats and Palestinians harvesting olives outside the town of Taybeh, assaulting a visiting French mayor, smashing the window of an official car and causing severe injuries to a young Palestinian man.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned the accounts of Israeli militant violence despite extensive video and witness evidence, according to the Guardian. He referenced an “alleged attack” on Levine, whose severe injuries were visible in interviews from her hospital bed, and “unproven allegations” that the diplomats had been targeted by militants.

The attacks and Netanyahu’s response drew a furious international reaction, the Guardian reported, including from US secretary of state Marco Rubio, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee — generally considered a staunch ally of the current Israeli government — European nations and Washington Post editor Matt Murray.

Netanyahu’s statements, which the Guardian said were apparently undermined by the security forces’ arrests days later, were widely seen as an attempt to court far-right voters inside Israel as the country heads into the final days of an election campaign. The Guardian reported that his coalition partners include extremist settlers who support a campaign of violence that has driven thousands of Palestinians from their homes and land in the occupied West Bank over the last three years.

Haaretz reported on Monday that political pressure was preventing the army from confronting “Jewish terrorism” in the West Bank, even when the targets were foreigners, including diplomats and journalists. Israeli defence officials told the paper that commanders are reluctant to challenge settler leaders or take action against Israeli civilians and soldiers who attack Palestinians. The report said formal investigations and disciplinary procedures are limited and undermined by unofficial but clear messages of support from top commanders. It cited the response to an attack on a CNN crew in March, when Central Command chief Maj Gen Avi Bluth suspended the battalion responsible from operational duty and announced disciplinary action against the soldiers involved. Later that night, the brigade commander came to a base where the soldiers were staying to express his support and join them in prayer, Haaretz said.

Attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank carry what the Guardian described as near-total impunity, with arrests of attackers unusual, indictments rare and convictions even more unusual. The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has documented 561 incidents of settler and soldier violence against Palestinians over the three weeks since 27 September — an average of more than 26 each day. “It is telling that it took attacks on foreign nationals to prompt a significant response from Israeli authorities,” said the group’s executive director, Ziv Stahl. “Palestinians have endured years of systematic settler violence, with 94% of investigations into cases of settler violence against Palestinians closed without indictments.”