Ynet names the settlers who beat a Washington Post journalist; Israel National News blames ‘Arab rioters’ instead

Full analysis

What happened Why it matters How each country tells it Where accounts conflict Room for disagreement Our assessment Sources and evidence

What happened

On Friday, October 16, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was beaten by masked Israeli settlers while covering the olive harvest near Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, and was hospitalized in Ramallah in stable condition. The five reports gathered for this edition — Ynetnews, Israel National News, WAFA, Antiwar.com and Al Jazeera — all record that beating and hospitalization, and none identifies her attackers as anyone other than settlers. What they disagree about, sharply, is what preceded the assault and what Israeli forces did once they arrived.

Witnesses cited by Ynetnews and Al Jazeera described about 80 masked settlers, some carrying clubs or gas canisters, descending from a hill onto terraced olive groves, setting trees alight and using slingshots. Palestinian harvesters retreated downhill and threw stones back; Ynetnews quoted farmer Moutaz Abdelhadi saying, “The settlers want to attack us and force us from our homes.” Levine, a 63-year-old Jerusalem-based photographer who has covered the Middle East for decades, was wearing a press vest, helmet and visible press markings, according to Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray. Footage showed masked people beating her with sticks as she lay on the ground; she could be heard saying, “I’m not okay. They took all my stuff.” Her camera equipment was stolen and her vehicle damaged. From the Ramallah hospital, she told Ynetnews: “I was attacked, pushed to the ground. Luckily I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn’t even be here, because they just kept kicking me and kicking me.” She said Palestinian colleagues intervened and ended the assault. Antiwar.com added that Levine described her attackers as “Jewish terrorists” and said she was positive none would be prosecuted.

Al Jazeera’s account, built partly on independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel’s testimony, adds that more settlers armed with machine guns arrived, that live gunfire was heard and that a photographer saw at least one armed settler fire a gun. Nathaniel said everyone ran when the firing began, and he could reach Levine only “because young Palestinians provided cover with rocks against machine-gun- and tear-gas-wielding settlers and soldiers.” He added that the Israeli army was hunting those Palestinian youths, not the “settler terrorists.” Ynetnews, Al Jazeera and Antiwar.com all report that soldiers arrived during the confrontation and that violence continued, with troops firing tear gas toward Palestinians; Antiwar.com says the soldiers “did effectively nothing” to stop the settlers and stood by as beatings continued. The IDF statement, carried by Israel National News, says forces acted to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal measures and later fired warning shots before shooting at a suspect who ran toward them with a sharp object.

Israeli police and the IDF opened an investigation into the violence in Abu Falah and nearby Turmus Ayya, sending forensic teams under military escort. Police said they and the military “view any manifestation of violence gravely, particularly when it involves journalists carrying out their work” and pledged to bring those responsible to justice. The Washington Post said Levine had been attacked by Israeli settlers, called the assault “unwarranted,” and demanded a thorough investigation and follow-through. The U.S. embassy said it was monitoring the situation, condemned “criminal violence by any party in the West Bank,” and called for investigations, arrests and convictions.

Against that, Israel National News opens differently. Under a headline saying only that Levine was “injured in an attack in Samaria,” it reports that on Friday morning “Palestinian Arab rioters attacked Jews” near al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, hurling stones and fireworks and setting fire to an agricultural field, leaving several Israelis with minor injuries. The Binyamin Regional Council calls the incident a “planned provocation” by the Palestinian Authority, saying hundreds of “terrorists and anarchists” confronted Israelis while PA vehicles were present; Ynetnews relays the same council statement with the caveat that it was not independently verified. WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, publishes the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s different frame: a “colonist attack” committed “under the protection of Israeli occupation forces,” part of a systematic campaign of intimidation against journalists.

Friday’s violence was not confined to Abu Falah. Ynetnews reported that settlers set fire to olive trees and vehicles in Turmus Ayya, including one belonging to the Palestinian Civil Defense, and attacked a member trying to extinguish it. The Palestinian Red Crescent treated four injured people near Burqa, and a 70-year-old man was hurt near Birzeit, according to Palestinian media.

Why it matters

An American journalist wearing press markings was beaten in daylight, and the response turns a routine olive-harvest assault into a test of Israeli institutions. Washington Post editor Matt Murray’s outrage and the U.S. embassy’s demand for arrests give the case a prominence most settler attacks never receive. For Palestinians, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate warns that impunity will become “a green light for further attacks” on journalists, and WAFA insists the assault is not isolated. Antiwar.com gives the clearest numbers for that fear: Israeli rights group Yesh Atid has documented at least 170 incidents of settler violence since late September, and only about 2 percent of settler-violence cases lead to convictions. It also notes that AFP photographer Jaafer Ashtiyeh was badly beaten by settlers ten days earlier in full view of Israeli soldiers, with no reported accountability. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, quoted by Antiwar.com, said the security forces’ failure to stop the attacks “wasn’t a failure of government policy but rather was itself the policy.” For Israel’s government, meanwhile, the official hedge matters: Al Jazeera reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the facts around the settler attack “remain unclear” and demanded an investigation to establish “who initiated the violence.”

How each country tells it

• 🇮🇱
  Ynetnews · Israel · original reporting

  Leads with Heidi Levine’s hospital-bed quote and names masked Israeli settlers as the attackers, while including the IDF investigation and Binyamin Regional Council counterclaim.
• 🇮🇱
  Israel National News · Israel · original reporting

  Uses the biblical name Samaria, says Levine was injured ‘in an attack attributed to Jewish rioters,’ then spends most of the piece on Palestinian Arab rioters attacking Jews and the council’s PA-blame.
• 🇵🇸
  WAFA · Palestine · original reporting

  Publishes the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s condemnation, calling the assault a ‘colonist attack’ under ‘protection of Israeli occupation forces’ and a systematic assault on press freedom.
• 🇺🇸
  Antiwar.com · United States · opinion

  Frames the attack in active voice as settler assault on an American journalist, says Israeli troops did ‘effectively nothing,’ and dwells on the near-zero chance of prosecution.
• 🇶🇦
  Al Jazeera · Qatar · original reporting

  Uses ‘pogrom’ and ‘occupied West Bank,’ reports from an independent journalist on the ground, and adds Netanyahu’s office saying facts ‘remain unclear.’

Where accounts conflict

Two factual claims cannot both be true. The first is who started it. The witness-based accounts in Ynetnews, Al Jazeera and Antiwar.com say settlers charged the harvesters, set trees alight and used slingshots before Palestinians threw stones back. Israel National News, relaying the Binyamin Regional Council, says the opposite: Palestinian Arab rioters left al-Mughayyir toward Jewish farmland, set fire to a field, and threw stones and fireworks at Jews who came to extinguish it. Those claims rest on the council’s assertion, and Ynetnews explicitly says they were not independently verified. The second conflict is what the IDF did. Witnesses in Ynetnews, Al Jazeera and Antiwar.com say Israeli troops arrived and the violence went on, with soldiers firing tear gas at Palestinians and, in Antiwar.com’s telling, standing by as the beatings continued. The IDF statement in Israel National News says forces “acted to disperse the confrontation.” On the central question of who beat Levine, neither the council nor the IDF offers a competing version.

Room for disagreement

The strongest case that this time will end differently runs through the official machinery now in motion. Israel Police and IDF forensic investigators have entered the area under military escort to collect evidence and testimonies; police said they would bring those responsible to justice, and the IDF said it views any violence with “utmost severity.” Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray demanded a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities, and the U.S. embassy called for “investigations, arrests and convictions.” Because Levine is an American citizen and visibly marked journalist at a major outlet, the political and diplomatic pressure is far greater than in the cases Antiwar.com says normally vanish. If the investigation is genuine, a named indictment could follow, and a conviction would be a precedent the United States would publicly welcome.