A delegation of European diplomats was attacked by masked Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. The group — from Belgium, France, Poland and the Catholic Church — had travelled to Taybeh, a largely Christian village near Ramallah, to assess the situation on the ground after near-daily settler attacks on Palestinians trying to bring in the olive harvest.
Video from the scene showed masked settlers confronting the convoy, and reports suggest stones were thrown. A car from the Belgian consulate had a window smashed. A French mayor was assaulted; footage showed a man wearing a French tricolour sash slumped beside a vehicle.
What happened to the French mayor
Netanyahu's office named him as Bernard Baudoux, the left-wing mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France. He told AFP the settlers kicked him and beat him with iron bars, throwing him to the ground. "It's the gratuitous nature of the violence that stuns me," he said. "They arrived completely enraged."
Three Israeli responses, all different
- Belgium's foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, condemned the attack and said Israel, "as the occupying power", must protect Palestinians, ensure the safety of diplomats and journalists, and bring those responsible to justice. He said impunity for violent settlers must end and that Belgium will keep pressing for EU sanctions.
- The IDF said it "strongly condemn[s] the severe act of violence", adding that a preliminary inquiry found no soldiers present at the scene.
- Netanyahu's office urged "caution before drawing conclusions", said social media images "do not establish the complete sequence of events", and framed the reports as part of "a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest".
Foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned the violence by "Israeli rioters" but added that "it is unfortunate that the visit was not coordinated with the IDF in advance".
Why it matters
- Diplomats from four European states were attacked in daylight while doing the job diplomats do, and the prime minister's office responded by questioning whether the attack happened as reported. That gap between the army's language and the PM's is the story.
- It follows a separate assault a day earlier in another West Bank village in which Palestinians and Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photographer, were injured. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called that "disturbing" and "not a good look"; ambassador Mike Huckabee, normally a staunch ally of Israel, called it a "despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards" and demanded full prosecution.
- The trigger is the olive harvest, an annual flashpoint. If farmers cannot reach their trees and journalists and diplomats cannot observe it safely, the violence becomes invisible by default.
- Belgium is already pushing EU sanctions on those responsible. Attacks on EU officials give that push a much stronger case than a statement ever would.