Washington Post reporter Heidi Levin, who was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last week, said the horrifying ordeal has only strengthened her resolve to continue reporting on the plight of Palestinians.
“What hurt me the most is that I can now really understand what other people have been through, what Palestinian women, children and men have been through,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday from Israel, where she was recovering after being released from the hospital the day before.
“I’m American and I work for the Washington Post. My story has gotten a lot of attention around the world and everyone wants to tell me. But I can’t even imagine what it’s like for all the victims who have gone through the same ordeal and live with the threat of this violence every day,” she added.
“It actually strengthened my resolve to keep working to make a difference.”
Levine, a veteran photojournalist known for her work in the Middle East, was covering the annual olive harvest in the West Bank when she, a group of Palestinians, and other journalists were attacked. Violence in the West Bank has soared in recent years as settlements expand with support from the Israeli military. Attacks on farmers and communities that depend on olive harvesting for a living are now a daily occurrence.
Harvest initially started as planned, Levine said. But then, as I peered through the lens of my telephoto camera, I noticed a group of people gathered on top of a nearby hill. They looked young and some were wearing black masks. Religious clothing and hats like kippahs and tzitzit were visible, she said, making it clear they were Israeli settlers.
Their number slowly increased to several dozen. They lit an olive tree and began to approach it. “Then all of a sudden there was chaos,” she said.
“There was tear gas, there was gunfire. My understanding is that a man was shot, a Palestinian man was shot in the leg, and the settlers charged,” she said.
“I was thrown to the ground… They just kept kicking me and hitting me with sticks and it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on I actually thought, Okay, I’ll just play dead and play dead and they’ll stop and leave me alone.”
Instead, the attackers began stripping her of equipment, including a camera bag, lenses, a pouch containing a U.S. passport, credit cards, documents and other items.
Then they stood her up. The moment sparked controversy and debate in the week since the video of her attack was released. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement after the attack that the footage “appears to show Mr. Levine falling and quickly getting back to his feet, helped by the same unidentified person.”
According to Levin, this was a mistake.
“No, they just stood me up because they couldn’t get everything off my shoulders to rob me, including ripping off the gold necklace my daughter gave me for my birthday,” she said.
Journalist Jasper Nathaniel and several others came to Levine’s aid and the attacks finally stopped, but the danger was far from over. Video footage of the moment shows her trying to escape from her attackers, who continued to throw stones at her as rescuers supported her.
“Run, run!” Levine’s rescuers can be heard shouting in panic.
“I can’t do that,” she answered weakly. They again urge her, “You must, come on!”
Washington Post reporter attacked by Israeli settlers in West Bank
Washington Post reporter attacked by Israeli settlers in West Bank
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Speaking to Tapper on Thursday, she described it as a “biblical battle where several Palestinian men, several of them, came forward to me to prevent us, me and my rescuers from being attacked again.” Without Palestinian intervention, the entire group “would have been in the same situation as me.”
Even though he was wearing a flak jacket and helmet, Levine suffered broken ribs, a fractured vertebrae and severe injuries that required surgery, said Nathaniel, who visited him in the hospital last week. Her hand was still heavily bandaged when she spoke to CNN.
Her attack was widely condemned by the foreign press, the White House, and some Israeli leaders, including President Isaac Herzog. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to cast doubt on Levine’s attack, saying “serious questions remain.”
Just a day after Levine’s assault, settlers attacked a group of European diplomats visiting the Palestinian Christian town of Taybeh, sparking further international outcry.
On Monday, Israeli police arrested at least 10 suspects in both attacks.
However, many Palestinian victims of similar attacks have never received justice. Since the olive harvest began on September 27, Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din has recorded more than 530 incidents of “settler-soldier violence,” including outright attacks as well as the plundering of crops and livestock and the destruction of olive trees.
More than a quarter of violent acts “occur in the presence of soldiers and under their protection,” Yesh Din said.
Since Netanyahu took office in December 2022, illegal settler outposts have expanded dramatically across the West Bank, with more than a third of them approved by the government. With this expansion, settler violence has spread to areas of the West Bank where it previously had little or no occurrence.
Levine humorously laughed when asked if he condemned the attacks by other far-right Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“You’re listening to their rhetoric, right? You’re listening to their speeches. I’ve been documenting their visits in the West Bank, so I think the answer is very clear,” she said, warning that the situation is only going to get worse and that authorities “don’t even know how to deal with it.”
“In the more than 40 years I’ve been covering the region, I’ve never seen this situation in the West Bank or the situation in Israel at the level it is today.”
