Israeli police said Monday they had arrested 10 people in the West Bank after settler attacks on an American photographer and a French mayor.
The attacks come after global outrage over mounting settler violence in the West Bank. The opposition described the attacks on Westerners as a stain on Israel’s image and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of allowing the violence to happen. Rights groups note that Israel rarely prosecutes settlers when the victims are Palestinian.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a tight race for a new mandate in October 27 elections, has tried to shore up his right-wing base and had cast doubt on the circumstances behind the recent settler attacks. The settlers beat up Bernard Baudoux, 78, the mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, an advocate of the Palestinian cause who had come on a goodwill visit and was helping harvest olives.
The police said that they raided several locations across the West Bank and also seized cars and potential evidence related to the attacks, which have stepped up as settlers disrupt Palestinians’ annual olive harvest. “Following the severe incidents of violence over the past weekend, including the assault of a media worker and the suspected attacks on foreign civilians, an arrest operation was conducted before dawn,” said Major General Moshe Finchi, the Israeli police’s West Bank commander. “Suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the violent incidents, violating a military commander’s order concerning a closed military zone, and illegal construction,” he said. Settler attacks against Palestinians — including killings, beatings, vandalism and arson — averaged six a day in the first half of the year, according to the United Nations.
A day earlier, settlers attacked Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer who was on assignment for The Washington Post, leaving her in hospital with broken vertebrae. Settlers on Friday attacked a convoy of European diplomats including the French and Belgian consuls general in Jerusalem as they went through the predominantly Christian town of Taybeh in the West Bank on Saturday.
