Settlers attack a convoy of European diplomats in the West Bank, 78-year-old French mayor beaten with iron bars

Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked a convoy of European diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank and beat 78-year-old Bernard Baudot, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France. It happened in Taybeh, a village where most residents are Christians, just as the settlers set out to stop Palestinian farmers from picking their olives.

According to witnesses and the diplomats themselves, who arrived in French, Belgian and Polish mission vehicles, the settlers first attacked them verbally and then turned on the mayor. He said they pushed him to the ground, hit him and beat him with iron bars. "They arrived in a state of total rage," Baudot said. Footage shows him, wearing a sash in the colours of the French tricolour, standing doubled over, propped against a car.

He was not seriously injured and continued the visit - he had come to Taybeh to sign a cooperation agreement between the two municipalities, accompanied by the French consul general in Jerusalem and a priest from his town. The attack, he says, is proof of the "tolerance" that Benjamin Netanyahu's government shows towards settler violence.

A condemnation with a footnote

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar "strongly condemned" the serious acts of violence and attributed them to "Israeli rioters". But straight afterwards he criticised the European consulates for not coordinating the visit with the Israeli army. Netanyahu's office went further: it condemned a "smear campaign" against Israel and the settlers and stressed that Baudot is a communist known for supporting the Palestinians. How many times have we heard a government that, instead of answering for the violence, offers a file on the victim?

France did not accept the footnote. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called on the Israeli authorities to "urgently arrest those responsible for these despicable acts" and bring them to justice. Belgium, whose consul general was also at the scene, condemned the attack by "masked settlers" in "the strongest possible terms" - one Belgian vehicle was damaged. Israeli police said they had opened an investigation and were working to identify the suspects.

Olives as a front line

This is not an isolated case. Settlers are increasingly attacking to disrupt the annual olive harvest in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. On Friday they seriously injured Heidi Levine, an American photographer for The Washington Post who was covering the harvest, and a week earlier an AFP photographer was beaten. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was "deeply disturbed", and the ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called for prison for those responsible and described the attack as a "despicable act of terrorism by masked cowards". Netanyahu's office promised that those responsible "will be held accountable" - without mentioning the settlers.

The sharpest comment came from inside. Netanyahu's main election rival, former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, said the violence "destroys what little legitimacy the State of Israel has left" and called it "Jewish terrorism under government patronage". President Isaac Herzog described the attack on Levine as "scandalous and shocking".

The background is bloody. According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, the vast majority by Israeli soldiers. According to Israeli figures, around 50 Israelis have been killed there in that time. More than 500,000 Israelis live in the settlements, which are illegal under international law, alongside around three million Palestinians. Israeli and Palestinian NGOs warn that settler violence rarely ends in a serious investigation or prosecution.

If European diplomats in consular vehicles can be attacked with iron bars, what's left for the Palestinian farmer who walks alone into his own olive grove?