Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged a 'smear' campaign against Israeli settlers on Saturday, attempting to cast doubt on accounts of a settler attack on European diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank during the olive harvest.
In a statement published on the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) social media account on Saturday evening, Netanyahu’s office described the assault as an "alleged" attack and suggested reporting on settler violence was part of a coordinated effort to discredit Israel.
The delegation included representatives from the French and Belgian consulates and the Polish representative to the Palestinian Authority. Taybeh’s mayor, Khoury, told The New Arab that the visitors had attended an event marking a twinning agreement between the Palestinian town and the French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries.
When members of the delegation accompanied Palestinians to harvest olives nearby, a group of around 10 Israeli settlers attacked their convoy. The attackers reportedly threatened those present and smashed the windows of a Belgian consular vehicle, injuring Aulnoye-Aymeries mayor Bernard Baudoux and two Palestinians.
The PMO referred to the attackers as "masked Israelis in Judea and Samaria", using Israel’s term for the occupied West Bank, and alleged that the diplomats had entered a "sensitive area" without prior coordination with the Israeli military.
Khoury disputed that account, telling The New Arab that the delegation had been taken to an area west of Taybeh, near homes that Palestinians considered safe. The settlers, he said, arrived from several settlement outposts surrounding the town.
Rather than unequivocally condemning the assault, Netanyahu’s office placed the reports "amid concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest, relying on sensational headlines before the full facts emerge".
"These images alone do not establish the complete sequence of events or individual responsibility," the PMO said, adding that Israeli police and forensic investigators had opened an investigation.
The statement urged journalists and the public not to turn "unproven allegations" into a "collective indictment" of Israeli settlers.
It also sought to undermine Baudoux’s account by highlighting his support for Palestinians, noting that he had "previously raised the Palestinian flag over his municipal building, prompting French authorities to order its removal". The statement offered no explanation of how that episode cast doubt on his account of the attack.
Speaking after the attack on Saturday, Baudoux said the assault demonstrated Israel’s "tolerance" of settler violence.
"I had on my mayor’s sash with the blue, white and red colours, which clearly represent the symbol of France, in an attempt to protect the people around me. Well that was not enough and I was attacked, violently attacked, and … thrown to the ground," he said.
The attack drew criticism from a number of diplomats, including in Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that US officials were "very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing".
He added that Washington had "asked the Israelis and continue to ask them to crack down on that stuff".