West Bank attack on French mayor: Netanyahu's office questions delegation's account
Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank attacked a delegation of European diplomats, including French mayor Bernard Baudoux. The Israeli prime minister's office called for evidence, while former Israeli diplomats held a protest.
Masked Israeli settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats, French clergy and a visiting French mayor, Bernard Baudoux of Aulnoye-Aymeries, in the Palestinian town of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. A reporter for the British newspaper The Guardian was at the scene and filmed the attack. Afterwards the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned the delegation's account, and on Sunday, in an unusual step, former senior Israeli diplomats held a protest.
What happened in Taybeh
The delegation had spent the morning harvesting olives alongside Palestinians who own the groves. Around 1pm they were warned that settlers had attacked Palestinians harvesting nearby. The group decided to leave, but as they approached their vehicles, masked men carrying sticks ran up the hill towards them.
The Guardian filmed the moments before the assault, showing Baudoux walking to an SUV with his wife and Vincent Dollmann, the archbishop of Cambrai, escorted by embassy security. Eyewitnesses said one attacker shouted "France, France" and pushed the mayor to the ground; he was wearing his mayor's sash. Video metadata shows just 22 seconds between the last shot of Baudoux remonstrating with his attackers and footage of him on the ground. Security staff helped him into the vehicle, but the attack continued as it drove away, and blows smashed one of the reinforced rear windows.
The prime minister's office responds
The prime minister's office posted on social media under the headline "Serious accusations require serious evidence". It said the images alone did not establish the full sequence of events or individual responsibility, and warned of a coordinated campaign to smear Israel. It also cast doubt on the accounts of French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and Catholic clergy who witnessed the attack. A day earlier, American photojournalist Heidi Levine was hospitalised after an attack in another village; the office described it as an "alleged assault".
Former diplomats protest
On Sunday more than a dozen former Israeli ambassadors and officials, including two former directors general, gathered outside the foreign ministry in Jerusalem. One banner urged Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar to stop Jewish terrorism.
