West Bank: French mayor attacked by settlers accuses Israel of “tolerating” their violence, EU condemns

A convoy of European diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank was attacked by Israeli settlers who notably beat a French mayor, in a context of intensifying violence to prevent the annual Palestinian olive harvest in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.

If the head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Saar, “strongly condemned these serious acts of violence”, attributing them to “Israeli rioters”, he nevertheless criticized the European consulates concerned for not having coordinated the visit with the Israeli army.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then denounced a “smear” campaign against Israel and its settlers and deplored “a coordinated campaign aimed at defaming Israel and the Jewish inhabitants” of the West Bank, “by relying on sensationalist headlines before all the facts are known”.

Palestinian farmers prevented from picking olives

The incident occurred on Saturday, as cars from French, Belgian and Polish missions brought diplomats to Taybeh, a predominantly Christian village in the West Bank, when settlers prevented Palestinian farmers from picking olives, witnesses said. They verbally attacked the diplomats before attacking Bernard Baudoux, 78, communist mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, in the north of France, according to these witnesses and diplomats. The councilor claimed to have been thrown to the ground, hit and beaten with iron bars. “They arrived really wild,” he said.

Without serious injuries, he was able to continue the visit to Taybeh which he was making with the French consul general in Jerusalem and a priest from his city, in order to sign a cooperation agreement between the two localities. He considered that this aggression demonstrated “tolerance” from the Netanyahu government towards settler violence.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called on the Israeli authorities to “imperatively arrest those responsible for these revolting acts” and “bring them to justice”. Belgium, whose consul general was also on site, also condemned “with the greatest firmness” this attack “perpetrated by masked settlers”, specifying that a Belgian vehicle had been “damaged”.

In a press release this Sunday, a spokesperson for European Union diplomacy “strongly condemns” the attack. “We take positive note of the statements of several Israeli representatives who condemned these attacks, but we expect responsibilities to be fully assumed,” he added. The EU also wants “effective measures aimed at preventing the continuation of acts of violence and violent harassment against Palestinians, particularly during the current olive harvest season, as well as against journalists,” according to the same source.

The Israeli police announced that they had opened an investigation and said they were working to “locate the victims, collect testimonies and identify the suspects, in order to bring them to justice”.