Netanyahu condemns violence but casts doubt on documented settler assault of US photographer

By Ariela Karmel

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts doubt on the reported assault of an American photojournalist by extremist settlers in the West Bank, despite clear video footage documenting the attack, while simultaneously condemning settler violence as a “scourge” that must be eradicated.

In his first public remarks on the incident, Netanyahu tells i24NEWS that reports of such attacks sometimes turn out to be inaccurate, when asked about the assault on Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was beaten by masked settlers while covering the Palestinian olive harvest near Ramallah yesterday.

“Many times we’ve been told that certain things happened, and then it turns out that things weren’t exactly as they were presented,” he says.

When the interviewer pushes back, pointing to footage of the assault and Levine’s own testimony, Netanyahu responds, “I don’t know. We’re checking it out.”

Netanyahu nevertheless condemns extremist settler violence more broadly, saying, “I am not willing to accept groups taking the law into their own hands,” and adding, “I brought the Shin Bet in there. We will uproot this scourge.”

He also says that such violence “tarnishes a huge public of settlers who are law-abiding, who are among the most moral people we have.”