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Heidi Levine, a “Washington Post” journalist who was attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last week, said the experience had strengthened her resolve to keep reporting on the plight of Palestinians.
“What hurts me the most is I can now really understand what others have gone through, what Palestinian women, children, men have gone through,” Levine told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday. She was speaking from Israel, where she is recovering after being released from hospital the day before.
“I’m an American, I work for the Washington Post, my story is getting a lot of attention around the world, everyone wants to talk to me – but I can’t imagine what it’s like for all the victims that have gone through the same ordeal and are living with the threat of this violence on a daily basis,” she said.
“It actually has strengthened my commitment to continue working to try to make a difference.”
Levine, a veteran photojournalist known for her work in the Middle East, was covering the annual olive harvest when she, a group of Palestinians and other journalists came under attack. Violence in the West Bank has surged in recent years as settlements have expanded, often with the backing of Israeli forces. Attacks on farmers and communities that depend on the olive harvest for their livelihoods now occur daily, CNN reported.
Levine describes the attack
Levine said the harvest initially began as planned. Looking through her telephoto camera lens, she noticed people gathering on a nearby hilltop. They appeared young, some wearing black masks, and she could see religious garments and headwear, including kippahs and tzitzit, which she said identified them as Israeli settlers.
The group grew to several dozen people, who began setting olive trees on fire and moving closer. “Then all of a sudden, chaos broke out,” she said.
“There was tear gas, there was gunfire. From what I understand, a man was shot; a Palestinian man was shot in the leg, and the settlers charged forward,” Levine said.
She said she was thrown to the ground and repeatedly kicked and hit with sticks. At one point, she thought she might pretend to be dead so the attackers would leave her alone.
Instead, the attackers began taking her equipment, including her camera bag, lenses and a pouch containing her American passport, credit cards, documents and other items.
They then pulled her to her feet, a moment that became the subject of debate after videos of the attack emerged. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that footage “appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual.”
Levine disputed that account. “No, they only stood me up because they couldn’t manage to get everything off my shoulders to rob me, including ripping off my gold necklace that my daughter gave me for my birthday,” she said.
The attack stopped when journalist Jasper Nathaniel and several others came to her aid. Video shows them helping Levine flee as attackers continued throwing rocks and chasing them.
“Run, run!” her rescuers can be heard shouting. Levine responds weakly, “I can’t,” before they urge her to keep moving.
Levine described the escape to Tapper as “this biblical battle where the Palestinian men, a group of men went in front of me to protect us, me and my rescuers from being attacked again.” Without their intervention, she said, the group “would have been in the same situation as me.”
More than 530 incidents documented since harvest began
Levine suffered a broken rib, a broken vertebra and a serious finger injury that required surgery, Nathaniel said last week after visiting her in hospital. She was wearing a heavy bandage on her hand during the CNN interview.
The attack was condemned by foreign press organisations, the White House and some Israeli leaders, including President Isaac Herzog. Netanyahu, however, questioned Levine’s account and said “serious questions remain.”
A day after Levine was assaulted, settlers attacked a group of European diplomats visiting Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian town, prompting further condemnation from the international community. Israeli police arrested at least 10 suspects on Monday in connection with both attacks.
Many Palestinian victims of similar attacks do not see justice, CNN reported. Since the olive harvest began on September 27, the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has documented more than 530 incidents of “settler and soldier violence”. The incidents include attacks, the looting of crops and livestock, and the destruction of olive trees.
Yesh Din said more than a quarter of the violence “occurs in soldiers’ presence and under their protection”.
Illegal settler outposts in the West Bank have expanded sharply since Netanyahu’s government was formed in December 2022, with more than a third approved by the government. Settler violence has also spread to areas that had previously seen little or none, CNN reported.
Asked whether she blamed Netanyahu and other far-right Israeli leaders, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for the attack, Levine laughed without humour.
“Well, you hear their rhetoric, right? You hear their speeches. I’ve documented their visits in the West Bank, so I think the answer is pretty obvious,” she said. She warned that the situation would worsen and said the authorities “don’t even know how to handle it.”
“This has been going on for over four decades that I have been covering this region, but I’ve never seen this situation in the West Bank or the situation in Israel at the level that it is today,” Levine said.
