Video Shows Guardian Reporter Filmed Masked Militants Seconds Before West Bank Attack on French Mayor

Delegation approached by militants

Shortly after 1pm, the delegation was warned that settlers had attacked Palestinians harvesting olives nearby. Seeking to avoid a confrontation, the group decided to leave and was heading toward its vehicles when masked men carrying sticks approached.

The militants then attacked the visitors, who included European diplomats, French clerics and Aulnoye-Aymeries mayor Bernard Baudoux. The account says the attackers appeared determined to drive the foreigners away and punish them for accompanying Palestinians on their land.

Video and damage document assault

Video shows men threatening diplomats and activists with sticks. Metadata indicates 22 seconds passed between the last recording of Baudoux remonstrating with his attackers and footage, filmed by activists in a second car, showing him on the ground in pain and shock.

The blows also shattered a reinforced rear window in a diplomatic car. The window appears intact in earlier footage, while a photograph taken minutes later in Taybeh shows the pane crumpled.

Netanyahu office disputes account

Hours after the assault, Benjamin Netanyahu questioned the delegation’s account. His office dismissed the video and photographs and challenged the credibility of senior French, Belgian and Polish diplomats in Jerusalem, as well as Catholic clergy who witnessed and reported the attack. The article describes this response alongside previous efforts by Israeli authorities to cast doubt on accounts of attacks on Palestinians and on statements from survivors and witnesses.

Earlier attack and protest

A day before the delegation assault, American photojournalist Heidi Levine was hospitalized after Israeli militants attacked her while blocking a Palestinian olive harvest in another village. Netanyahu’s office called it an “alleged assault” and a “disputed incident,” saying, “the facts … remain unclear and are under investigation.” On Sunday, more than a dozen former Israeli diplomats gathered outside the foreign ministry in Jerusalem, where they had worked for decades. A banner addressed Netanyahu and foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar, saying, “Stop Jewish Terrorism. It’s in your hands.”