The Washington Post photojournalist who was attacked and seriously injured by Israeli settlers on the West Bank on Friday has described how she was saved with the help of local Palestinians.
asserted
she → attack → Palestinians
Heidi Levine sustained four fractured vertebrae, two broken ribs and four puncture wounds when she was knocked to the ground and repeatedly beaten by a crowd of masked settlers while she and other journalists were covering the olive harvest in the Palestinian village of Abu Falah, north of Ramallah.
asserted
she → sustain → Ramallah
It is unclear whether the puncture wounds were caused by knives or other weapons.
uncertain
wounds → cause → knives
Levine said a witness to her attack had seen nails sticking out of some of the wooden clubs wielded by her attackers.
asserted
nails → say → attackers
Levine, 64, has covered multiple wars and had just returned from an assignment in Ukraine before Friday’s attack.
asserted
Levine → cover → attack
She said she would most likely have been killed had she not been wearing protective body armour and a helmet.
asserted
she → say → armour
“I probably would have been dead, because for sure it doesn’t take much to kill a person with blows to the head,” she said shortly before being discharged from hospital on Wednesday in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva.
asserted
she → take → Tikva
Levine pointed out that Palestinians did not have such protection and more than 20 had been killed in settler attacks so far this year, in the course of an escalating campaign of aggression – described as terrorism by Israeli security leaders – across the West Bank aimed at driving Palestinians from their land.
asserted
20 → point → land
“Every single journalist who looked at [the attack on me] are thinking they and I have gone to so many funerals of Palestinians killed by settlers,” Levine said.
asserted
Levine → look → settlers
She said the olive harvesting at Abu Falah had begun peacefully but at some point a group of young masked settlers appeared on a nearby hilltop watching the group of Palestinian villagers, journalists and human rights activists accompanying them.
asserted
group → say → them
Levine said the attack began only after the Israeli army arrived on the scene.
asserted
army → say → scene
“Then all hell broke loose.
asserted
hell → break → ?
Some of the farmers started to gather their tarps and bags of olives that they had picked,” she said.
asserted
she → start → that
“Then all of a sudden I hear a machine gun, and then saw teargas in the distance.
asserted
I → hear → distance
I started to run …
asserted
I → start → ?
It was just like a lot of commotion and then all of a sudden I see a dozen of them and they started charging at me.
asserted
they → see → me
“I managed to keep my face to the ground, and I don’t know if I took that position to protect myself with my face down or it was their initial blow.
asserted
it → manage → face
Otherwise my whole face would have been broken and I could have suffered brain damage or lost an eye.
uncertain
I → break → eye
“They started kicking me and beating me with sticks.
asserted
They → start → sticks
I can’t even count how many times, probably more than a hundred times.
asserted
I → count → ?
I actually tried playing dead so that they would stop.
asserted
they → try → ?
But it didn’t work.”
asserted
it → work → ?
Witnesses said the beating only ceased when young Palestinian men used slingshots to aim stones at settlers forcing them back, allowing another American journalist, Jasper Nathaniel, to reach Levine and, with other reporters, help her to safety.
asserted
journalist → say → safety
“The shabab [Palestinian youth] put themselves in front and were trying to keep them [the settlers] away, keep a protective shield, which was amazing.
asserted
which → put → shield
It was like a biblical battle,” Levine said.
asserted
Levine → say → battle
After the attack, Nathaniel wrote: “Had the shabab not stepped up to protect her, she might well be dead.
uncertain
she → write → her
It is no exaggeration to say that young Palestinians armed only with stones risked their lives to save Heidi Levine’s.”
asserted
Palestinians → say → Levine
He said the army pursued the young Palestinians in the wake of the incident, rather than the settlers.
asserted
army → say → settlers
Palestinians risk being shot by settlers or the soldiers if they try to resist attacks, and can face long periods in detention without charge.
asserted
they → risk → charge
Levine, who has lived in Israel for four decades, said she would go back to reporting on the West Bank as soon as she recovered.
asserted
she → live → Bank
“My work is important,” she said.
asserted
she → say → ?
“They have bruised me, broken some bones, but they haven’t cracked my spirit.”
asserted
they → bruise → spirit
Since the attack, she has received letters from Israelis expressing regret, and an apologetic phone call from the president, Isaac Herzog.
asserted
she → receive → president
“He was a teddy bear on the phone,” she said.
asserted
she → say → phone
“He kept saying I just want to give you a big hug and these are not representative of who this country is, they’re a dark stain, and he called them thugs.”
asserted
he → keep → them
The office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, however, put out a statement on X seeking to cast doubt on witness and video accounts of what he called an “alleged attack”.
asserted
he → put → what
Levine was particularly angered by Netanyahu’s claim that some video footage “appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual”.
uncertain
Levine → anger → individual
“That’s such bullshit.
asserted
That → ’ → ?
They helped me up because they couldn’t get my things off of me.
asserted
they → help → me
That’s why,” Levine said.
asserted
Levine → ’ → ?
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
