US Diplomats Visit West Bank Christian Village a Day After Settler Attack on Diplomats

Senior US officials visited the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh in the West Bank on Sunday, a day after masked Israeli settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats and a French mayor touring the area during the olive harvest, The Times of Israel reported. Riley Barnes, the State Department's assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, and Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, met with members of the local Christian community at the Latin Convent church.

The visit followed a difficult stretch for the village: Belgian, French and Polish diplomats were attacked there Saturday, and a day before that, Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was hospitalized after being beaten by settlers while covering the olive harvest nearby. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who had previously called for "those who attacked the Washington Post photojournalist, a US citizen, to be jailed," nonetheless attended a settler conference in the West Bank that same Sunday, a juxtaposition that drew notice given the timing.

The diplomatic visit also landed the same day President Donald Trump endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection bid. Israeli officials have offered conflicting accounts of the attacks themselves: Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and the IDF blamed "Israeli rioters," while Netanyahu suggested the diplomats had entered a "sensitive area" without coordinating with the military and said the facts of Levine's assault remained "unclear."

As of Sunday, no arrests had been announced in either case. France has pressed Israeli authorities to catch those responsible and curb settler violence more broadly, a pattern the Israeli rights group Yesh Din says has produced at least 170 attacks on Palestinians since September 27 alone, with arrests and prosecutions remaining rare.