US ambassador calls on Israel to bring attackers of American journalist to justice
United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee demanded that Israel arrest and imprison those responsible for the assault on American photojournalist Heidi Levine in the occupied West Bank, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington expects Israel to do more to deter future settler violence.
Huckabee posted on X on Saturday, describing the attack on the female photographer as “a despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards.” He added that the perpetrators should “spend years in prison” and called for a full investigation, arrests and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.
Rubio told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland that the State Department had asked the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem about the incident and expected a response by Sunday. “We are very disturbed by those images and what we are seeing,” he said, adding that the administration would convey its expectations to the Israelis “to prevent that from happening in the future.” He noted that the United States does not need additional pressure on Israel at this moment.
Levine, a photographer for The Washington Post, was covering the annual olive harvest in the occupied West West Bank on Friday when a group of Israeli settlers attacked her and several Palestinians. Witnesses said the assailants, armed with bottles and slingshots, beat Levine, kicked her for about ten minutes and stole her passport, phone, wallet and equipment. Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who saw the attack, told Al Jazeera that Levine “was in very, very bad shape. She couldn’t really get up off the ground.”
The 64‑year‑old was taken to a hospital in Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, where she underwent surgery after a finger was nearly detached, and was treated for a broken rib, multiple vertebral fractures and lacerations, according to her daughter.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is courting his pro‑settlement right‑wing base ahead of the October 27 elections, suggested on Friday that Palestinians or “far‑left” activists might have been behind the assault on Levine and other Palestinians. Huckabee, a Trump‑appointed ambassador and vocal critic of settler attacks on Americans, did not name settlers as the culprits after Netanyahu raised doubts about their identity.
In September, Huckabee met with Palestinian‑American residents of Turmus Aya in the West Bank to hear their accounts of recent pogroms. In August, he had described a multi‑day settler siege as “an act of terror.”
The State Department issued a cautious condemnation of the beating, denouncing “criminal violence by any party.” According to Yesh Din, an Israeli organization that monitors illegal settlements, settlers have been involved in at least 170 pogroms against Palestinians since September 27, the start of the olive harvest season.