Several elected officials condemned the attack Friday on Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was beaten and injured by masked Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
“The reported attack on Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine by West Bank settlers is unconscionable and a moment of reckoning for the world,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) posted on X. “Are we going to tolerate accelerating vigilante violence against Palestinian civilians and foreign observers by right-wing vigilantes who operate with government protection?”
Some called for an investigation. Levine was reporting on settler attacks against Palestinian villagers as they tried to gather their autumn olive harvest.
“Reports that this was a coordinated attack are incredibly concerning, as are reports that IDF soldiers did not intervene,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) wrote on X. “I will continue to call for an investigation and accountability.”
Levine, a veteran photojournalist who has covered conflicts in Ukraine and across the Middle East, was treated at hospitals in Ramallah and Israel for four broken vertebrae, a broken rib and lacerations throughout her body.
“She said attackers picked her up, then threw her down again and kept kicking,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) wrote on X. Israeli settlers “operate with impunity. We need to cut off aid to Israel that is used to fund settler activity, and stop the sales of these weapons.”
People at the scene described a coordinated attack in which dozens of men wearing black descended from a hilltop settlement, hurled stones with slings and set olive groves on fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the facts of incident “remain unclear and are under investigation.”
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem condemned criminal violence in the West Bank and said it was monitoring the situation.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) described the attack as “appalling.”
“There must be swift justice and accountability for perpetrators of violent extremism in the West Bank, which stands in the way of regional peace and is escalating an already unpredictable and dangerous situation,” he wrote on X.
Former Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz reposted a Post video of the attack Friday, writing, “This is so hard to watch.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) called on Israel to take action. “Israeli authorities must hold those responsible for this attack accountable and stop enabling broader efforts to annex the West Bank,” she wrote on X. “The safety of Palestinians, Israelis and Americans in the region depends on it.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) had previously introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on “anyone looking to take Palestinian land in the West Bank or Gaza.”
“This must be a wakeup call,” he posted Friday on X. “Attacks like this one pave the way for the violent land grabs taking place throughout the West Bank and push us further away from peace.”
Journalism advocacy groups also criticized the attack.
“The brutal beating of Heidi Levine is neither isolated nor the first on a journalist covering the olive harvest in the West Bank,” Sara Qudah, Middle East and North Africa regional director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. “It’s part of a disturbing pattern of violence and harassment against journalists regardless of their nationalities.”
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