No Arrests Two Days After Settlers' Assault on Washington Post Photojournalist | Israel Politics Post
No Arrests Two Days After Settlers' Assault on Washington Post Photojournalist
Heidi Levine underwent surgery on a severely damaged finger after settler extremists attacked her in the West Bank, as the US pressed Israel to crack down on the violence and press groups demanded accountability.
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By Israel Politics Post Staff·Published
Democrats party chair Yair Golan and MK Gilad Kariv visit photojournalist Heidi Levine in the hospital · Source: via The Times of Israel
Two days after Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was attacked by settler extremists in the West Bank, Israeli police had announced no arrests as of Sunday afternoon, The Times of Israel reported. Levine was assaulted during clashes near Abu Falah on Friday morning, suffering a severely damaged finger and multiple fractures that required surgery at Rabin Medical Center after initial treatment in Ramallah.
Levine, who has covered conflicts from Ukraine to Afghanistan since settling in Israel in the 1980s, has described the attack as unlike anything she experienced in decades of war reporting. Democrats party chair Yair Golan and MK Gilad Kariv visited her in the hospital on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the case Saturday, saying the Trump administration wants Israel to do more to confront extremist settler violence and that Israeli authorities have been pressed repeatedly to "crack down on that stuff." Netanyahu initially appeared to question the incident despite video evidence before acknowledging it needed investigating, while stressing that most settlers act lawfully.
Journalist groups have demanded a faster response. The Union of Journalists in Israel called for the arrest of those responsible and the return of Levine's stolen equipment, while the Foreign Press Association criticized what it called an inadequate law-enforcement response to a broader pattern of settler violence against journalists.
