Washington Post journalist says attack by Israeli West Bank settlers has only ‘strengthened’ her resolve

Heidi Levine, the Washington Post journalist brutally attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last week, said the terrifying ordeal has only strengthened her resolve to continue covering the plight of Palestinians.

“What hurts me the most is I can now really understand what others have gone through, what Palestinian women, children, men have gone through,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday from Israel, where she’s recovering after being released from hospital the day before.

“I’m an American, I work for the Washington Post, my story is getting a lot of attention around the world, everyone wants to talk to me – but I can’t imagine what it’s like for all the victims that have gone through the same ordeal and are living with the threat of this violence on a daily basis,” she added.

“It actually has strengthened my commitment to continue working to try 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 came under attack. Violence in the West Bank has surged in recent years as settlements have expanded, often backed by Israeli forces; attacks on farmers and communities who rely on the olive harvest for their livelihoods now come on a daily basis.

Initially, Levine said, the harvest began as planned. But then, peering through her telephoto camera lens, she noticed people gathering at a nearby hilltop. They seemed young, some wearing black masks; she could see religious garments and headwear like kippah and tzitzit that she said clearly identified them as Israeli settlers.

Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

Washington Post journalist hospitalized after Israeli settler attack on Palestinian olive harvest in West Bank

Their numbers slowly grew to reach several dozen. They began lighting the olive trees on fire and moving closer. “Then all of a sudden, chaos broke out,” she said.

“There was tear gas, there was gunfire. From what I understand, a man was shot; a Palestinian man was shot in the leg, and the settlers charged forward,” she said.

“I was thrown to the ground … They just kept kicking me and hitting me with sticks, and it just kept going on and on. And then I actually thought, okay, maybe I’ll just play dead and pretend I’m dead, and they’ll stop and they’ll leave me alone.”

Instead, her attackers started ripping her gear off her body – her camera bag, her lenses, her pouch containing her American passport, credit cards, documents and other items.

Then they hauled her to her feet, in a moment that has sparked controversy and debate in the week since videos of her attack emerged. In a statement after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said footage “appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual.”

This, Levine says, was false.

“No, they only stood me up because they couldn’t manage to get everything off my shoulders to rob me, including ripping off my gold necklace that my daughter gave me for my birthday,” she said.

The attack finally halted when journalist Jasper Nathaniel and several others came to Levine’s aid – but the danger wasn’t over. Video footage from that moment shows her rescuers holding her up and trying to escape from the attackers, who continue to throw rocks as they give chase.

“Run, run!” Levine’s rescuers can be heard shouting in a panic.

“I can’t,” she responds weakly. They urge her again: “You have to, come on!”

Speaking to Tapper on Thursday, she described it as “this biblical battle where the Palestinian men, a group of men went in front of me to protect us, me and my rescuers from being attacked again.” Without the Palestinians’ intervention, the whole group “would have been in the same situation as me.”

Even with a flak jacket and helmet on, Levine sustained serious injuries, with a broken rib, a broken vertebra, and a severe finger injury that required surgery, said Nathaniel last week after visiting her in the hospital. When she spoke to CNN, her hand was still heavily bandaged.

Her attack was widely condemned by foreign press, the White House, and some Israeli leaders including President Isaac Herzog. Netanyahu, however, tried to cast doubt on Levine’s attack and said that “serious questions remain.”

Just one day after Levine’s assault, settlers attacked a group of European diplomats visiting the Palestinian Christian town of Taybeh, prompting further outcry from the international community.

On Monday, Israeli police arrested at least 10 suspects for both attacks.

But many Palestinian victims of similar attacks never see justice. Since the olive harvest began on September 27, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has documented more than 530 incidents of “settler and soldier violence” – which, beyond outright attacks, also includes the looting of crops and livestock, and destruction of olive trees.

More than a quarter of the violence “occurs in solders’ presence and under their protection,” said Yesh Din.

There has been a dramatic expansion of illegal settler outposts across the West Bank since Netanyahu’s government formed in December 2022 – with more than a third approved by the government. With that expansion, settler violence has also spread into parts of the West Bank that had previously seen little or none.

When asked if she blames Netanyahu and other far-right Israeli leaders like national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for her attack, Levine laughed humorlessly.

“Well, you hear their rhetoric, right? You hear their speeches. I’ve documented their visits in the West Bank, so I think the answer is pretty obvious,” she said, warning that things will only worsen, and that authorities “don’t even know how to handle it.”

“This has been going on for over four decades that I have been covering this region, but I’ve never seen this situation in the West Bank or the situation in Israel at the level that it is today.”

上周在被占领的约旦河西岸遭到以色列定居者残酷袭击的《华盛顿邮报》记者海蒂·莱文表示，这场可怕的磨难只会更加坚定她继续报道巴勒斯坦人困境的决心。

“最让我感到痛苦的是，我现在真的能够理解其他人所经历的苦难，巴勒斯坦妇女、儿童和男人所经历的苦难，”她周四在以色列接受 CNN 记者杰克·塔珀采访时说道。她前一天刚从医院出院，目前正在以色列休养。

“我是美国人，我在《华盛顿邮报》工作，我的故事在全世界引起了广泛关注，每个人都想和我交谈——但我无法想象所有经历过同样磨难、每天都生活在这种暴力威胁下的受害者们的感受，”她补充道。

“这反而更加坚定了我继续努力做出改变的决心。”

莱文是一位资深摄影记者，以其在中东的报道而闻名。事发时，她正在约旦河西岸报道一年一度的橄榄采摘季，却与一群巴勒斯坦人和其他记者遭到袭击。近年来，随着定居点的扩张（通常得到以色列军队的支持），约旦河西岸的暴力事件激增；如今，针对依赖橄榄采摘为生的农民和社区的袭击几乎每天都在发生。

莱文说，起初收割工作按计划进行。但随后，她透过长焦镜头注意到附近山顶上聚集着一些人。他们看起来很年轻，有些人戴着黑色面具；她看到他们穿着宗教服饰，头戴犹太小圆帽和流苏，她说这些都清楚地表明他们是以色列定居者。

艾哈迈德·加拉布利/法新社/盖蒂图片社

《华盛顿邮报》记者在以色列定居者袭击约旦河西岸巴勒斯坦橄榄收成后入院治疗

他们的数量慢慢增加到几十人。他们开始点燃橄榄树，并逐渐靠近。“然后突然间，一片混乱，”她说。

“现场有催泪瓦斯，有枪声。据我了解，一名男子中枪；一名巴勒斯坦男子腿部中弹，定居者们向前冲去，”她说。

“我被摔倒在地……他们不停地踢我，用棍子打我，没完没了。然后我心想，好吧，也许我装死，假装死了，他们就会停下来，放过我。”

相反，袭击者开始从她身上扯下她的物品——相机包、镜头、装有美国护照、信用卡、文件和其他物品的小袋。

随后，他们将她扶了起来。这一幕在她遇袭视频曝光后的一周内引发了争议和辩论。以色列总理内塔尼亚胡在袭击事件后发表声明称，视频“似乎显示莱文被击倒后，立即被同一名身份不明的人扶了起来”。

莱文说，这是错误的。

“不，他们放我鸽子只是因为他们没办法从我身上卸下所有东西来抢劫我，包括抢走我女儿送我的生日礼物——金项链，”她说。

袭击最终在记者贾斯珀·纳撒尼尔和其他几人前来帮助莱文后才停止——但危险并未解除。当时的视频画面显示，救援人员托着她，试图逃离袭击者，而袭击者则一边追赶一边继续投掷石块。

“快跑，快跑！”可以听到莱文的救援人员惊慌地喊着。

“我做不到，”她虚弱地回答。他们再次劝说她：“你必须做到，快点！”

周四，她在接受塔珀采访时，将此事描述为“一场圣经般的战斗，一群巴勒斯坦男子挺身而出，保护我和我的救援人员免受再次袭击。”如果没有巴勒斯坦人的介入，他们一行人“也会和我一样身处险境”。

纳撒尼尔上周去医院探望莱文后表示，即使穿着防弹背心、戴着头盔，莱文仍然受了重伤，包括肋骨骨折、脊椎骨折以及手指严重受伤，需要手术。莱文接受CNN采访时，她的手仍然缠着厚厚的绷带。

她的袭击遭到了外国媒体、白宫以及包括以色列总统伊萨克·赫尔佐格在内的一些以色列领导人的广泛谴责。然而，内塔尼亚胡试图质疑莱文的袭击，并表示“仍存在一些严重问题”。

莱文袭击事件发生仅一天后，定居者袭击了一群访问巴勒斯坦基督教城镇泰贝的欧洲外交官，这进一步引发了国际社会的强烈抗议。

周一，以色列警方逮捕了至少 10 名与这两起袭击事件有关的嫌疑人。

但许多巴勒斯坦类似袭击的受害者却从未得到公正对待。自9月27日橄榄采摘季开始以来，以色列人权组织“Yesh Din”已记录了530多起“定居者和士兵暴力”事件——除了直接袭击外，还包括抢劫农作物和牲畜，以及毁坏橄榄树。

耶什·丁说，超过四分之一的暴力事件“发生在士兵在场和保护之下”。

自内塔尼亚胡政府于2022年12月成立以来，西岸非法定居点数量急剧扩张，其中超过三分之一得到了政府的批准。随着非法定居点的扩张，定居者暴力也蔓延到此前鲜少或从未发生过暴力事件的西岸地区。

当被问及是否将她遭受的袭击归咎于内塔尼亚胡和其他极右翼以色列领导人，如国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔时，莱文苦笑了一下。

“你听过他们的言论，对吧？你听过他们的演讲。我记录了他们在西岸的访问，所以我认为答案很明显，”她说道，并警告说情况只会恶化，而且当局“甚至不知道该如何应对”。

“在我报道这个地区的四十多年里，这种情况一直存在，但我从未见过西岸或以色列出现像今天这样严重的局势。”