Oct 16, 2:01 PM
Season of Impunity in the West Bank
When law enforcement enables arson and assault, the rule of law becomes a transparent fiction.
The annual olive harvest in the West Bank has long ceased to be a simple seasonal routine for local agricultural communities. Instead, it has deteriorated into a predictable exhibition of unchecked lawlessness, where private property is routinely set ablaze while official security forces look on with apparent indifference.
The recent events in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, offer a textbook illustration of this institutional failure. Masked settlers descended upon Palestinian villagers gathering their crop, employing stones, slingshots, and deliberate arson. Caught in the violent melee was Heidi Levine, a 64-year-old American freelance photojournalist on assignment for The Washington Post. Despite wearing a clearly marked protective press vest, Levine was knocked down, kicked repeatedly while on the ground, and stripped of her cameras and phone before bystanders managed to pull her to safety.
When Israeli military units eventually arrived at the scene, their presence did little to re-establish impartial public order. Rather than detaining the aggressors, soldiers deployed tear gas and live ammunition against the Palestinian harvesters, ultimately shooting a local man in the leg and confronting paramedics who were attempting to render aid.
The incident drew a firm official response from the newspaper's management. Matt Murray, executive editor of The Washington Post, declared: "We are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities."
Yet such formal appeals routinely vanish into a vacuum of accountability. According to records kept by the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, more than 170 violent settler incursions have been documented since the harvest season began in late September. The violence is systematic, stretching across locations such as Burqa and Turmus Aya, where vehicles and groves were torched, and extending back to earlier attacks that claimed the life of farmer Ali Hassan Yasser al-Bazzari and left AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh hospitalized with head and torso injuries.
A state’s fundamental justification for maintaining a monopoly on violence rests on the defense of basic legal order and property rights. When organized mobs are permitted to destroy livelihoods and beat foreign journalists without legal consequence, it exposes the inherent fragility of state credibility in the region.
Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com
