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.

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.”