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France’s foreign minister said Saturday that Israel must urgently halt “criminal violence” in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers beat a visiting French mayor and attacked a convoy of European diplomats that included France’s top representative in Jerusalem.
The mayor, Bernard Baudoux, 78, of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, said masked settlers shouted defamatory remarks about France, kicked him and hit him with iron bars as he joined Palestinian olive farmers near Taybeh, a largely Christian village.
Baudoux, who wore a sash in the French national colors, was seen collapsed beside a car but did not need hospital care.
Belgium, Poland and other governments condemned the attack, while Israeli officials were divided over how to respond, just days before a general election.
Baudoux said he had come to Taybeh with his local pastor to sign a goodwill agreement and was attacked just after joining the harvest as a symbolic gesture.
He told AFP that two or three cars arrived suddenly and settlers got out shouting insults about France.
He said the assault pointed to official leniency. “I think that if settlers are behaving like this, there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government,” he said.
He predicted it would go unpunished despite Israel’s quick promise of an investigation, adding that Palestinians in the area “continue to suffer the most.”
The diplomats said settlers blocked and surrounded their vehicle, demanded identity cards and threatened to kill them, according to Israeli media reports.
A window of a car belonging to the Belgian consulate was smashed.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” saying it targeted Palestinians, Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives.
He tied the violence to what he called Israel’s illegal settlement policy and said Belgium would press for further European Union sanctions on settlers and their supporters. “Impunity for violent settlers must end,” he said.
Poland’s foreign ministry said it was “deeply outraged” and expected Israeli authorities to provide urgent explanations, identify those responsible and hold them accountable.
It said Poland has consistently opposed settler violence in the West Bank.
The US Embassy in Jerusalem condemned criminal violence in the West Bank and called for investigations, arrests and convictions, according to reports.
Jordan also condemned the attack, Jordanian media reported. Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh called on the international community to hold Israel responsible.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned “severe acts of violence by Israeli rioters,” though he also faulted the diplomats for not coordinating with the military.
The army said the visit was not coordinated and that no soldiers were present. Police opened an investigation. President Isaac Herzog described the violence as “outrageous and shocking.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office instead alleged a “smear” campaign against settlers and urged caution before drawing conclusions.
Netanyahu said the diplomats should have coordinated their movements and noted that Baudoux is a communist known for supporting the Palestinian cause. He is seeking to shore up far-right support ahead of elections on October 27.
His main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, said the violence was “burning away the little legitimacy the State of Israel still possesses” and called it “Jewish terrorism, under the auspices of the Israeli government.”
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The attack came a day after settlers beat Heidi Levine, an American photographer for The Washington Post, who was in moderate condition Saturday with broken vertebrae.
Netanyahu had suggested Palestinians and “far-left” activists caused trouble in that incident. Earlier this month, settlers fractured several ribs of AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh while he covered the harvest.
At least four people have been killed and more than 100 injured since the harvest began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Extremist Israelis have called for the harvest to be stopped after months of attacks in which settlers have stolen land and property. A Palestinian shot dead a settler last month, and Britain has led economic sanctions that drew Netanyahu’s anger.
Israel seized the West Bank in 1967. About 500,000 Israelis live there among roughly three million Palestinians, and the settlements are illegal under international law.
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