Masked Israeli settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats, Catholic representatives and Palestinians in the village of Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian village east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on Saturday, Belgium's foreign minister said. Belgium's consul general, French and Polish diplomats and a French mayor were among those attacked, a Belgian consulate vehicle was damaged, and a French mayor was assaulted. It was the second consecutive day of settler attacks on foreigners accompanying Palestinians at the olive harvest — on Friday, settlers beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine as she accompanied harvesters in the nearby village of Abu Falah.
What happened in Taybeh?
The diplomats had come to the largely Christian village of Taybeh to assess the situation on the ground after near-daily settler attacks on Palestinians trying to bring in their olive harvest, the BBC reported. Video footage from the scene showed masked settlers confronting the convoy, and reports suggested stones were thrown. The Belgian authorities said a window of a consulate car was smashed and the French mayor was assaulted; video showed a man wearing a French tricolour sash slumped beside a vehicle, the BBC reported. CNN reported that in other videos, masked settlers — some armed with clubs or riding all-terrain vehicles — blocked roads and demanded identification. The mayor, Bernard Baudoux of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France, said he was kicked, beaten with iron bars and thrown to the ground, the Associated Press reported. Poland's foreign ministry said its diplomats were in the attacked convoy but were unharmed and did not appear to have been direct targets, the Wall Street Journal reported. Israeli police said they had opened an investigation after footage circulated online, and that efforts were under way to locate the victims and identify the suspects "with the aim of bringing them to justice," AP reported.
How have governments responded?
Belgium, France and Poland condemned the attack and demanded arrests, while Israel's prime minister's office cast doubt on the account. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the attack was directly related to Israeli policies in the West Bank: "As the occupying power, Israeli authorities must protect Palestinians, ensure the safety of diplomats and journalists, and bring those responsible to justice. Impunity for violent settlers must end." Prevot said Belgium will continue to press for European Union sanctions against those responsible for the violence and those who support them, Reuters reported. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called the attack "outrageous" and urged the Israeli government to arrest those responsible immediately, saying Baudoux had been "violently assaulted by extremist settlers." Poland's foreign ministry said it was "deeply outraged," expected "urgent and detailed explanations," and called attacks on the diplomatic corps "absolutely unacceptable." Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said he strongly condemned "the severe acts of violence by Israeli rioters," and the Israel Defense Forces condemned "the severe act of violence" in which "diplomatic representatives were attacked by Israeli rioters," while noting that no soldiers were in the area and the visit had not been coordinated with the military, CNN reported. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the attack "outrageous and shocking violence," CNN reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, by contrast, said violence against diplomats was unacceptable but urged caution against "premature conclusions," suggesting the reports had emerged amid "a coordinated campaign to smear Israel" and issuing the statement "SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS REQUIRE SERIOUS EVIDENCE," according to CNN and AP. Hussein al-Sheikh, vice president of the Palestinian Authority, called the attack "a miniature model of the scale of the daily terrorism to which our Palestinian people are subjected" and called for international protection for Palestinians, CNN reported.
Why does it matter?
The attack extends a documented pattern in which the victims are no longer only Palestinian farmers. On Friday, in Abu Falah, dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinians and beat Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was wearing a protective vest marked "Press"; she was hospitalised, required surgery, and said her camera and passport were stolen, CNN reported, and the Wall Street Journal reported she was treated for lacerations, a broken rib and other injuries. The UN humanitarian office, which monitors the attacks, says reports of settler violence have risen every year over the past decade and spiked sharply after October 7, 2023, with attacks surging every autumn during the olive harvest, the Journal reported. Former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main election opponent, called the West Bank violence "Jewish terror" that endangers national security, the Journal reported. That the same violence has now been turned, on camera, on accredited European diplomats — and that three European governments have responded with demands for arrests and sanctions while the prime minister's office questions the evidence — makes Saturday's attack a diplomatic incident, not only a local one.
Attribution note: the composition of the delegation, the damage to the Belgian vehicle and the assault on the French mayor are the accounts of Belgium's foreign minister and the French, Polish and Palestinian officials cited above, corroborated across Reuters, the BBC, CNN, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal, and by video footage described by those outlets. The Israeli military and foreign minister condemned the attack as the work of Israeli rioters; the prime minister's office urged caution before drawing conclusions. No arrests had been reported at the time of publication.
