US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has called for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for attacking Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine in the occupied West Bank.
Huckabee described the assault as “a despicable act of terror” and said the perpetrators should face lengthy prison sentences. “We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this,” he wrote on X.
Levine, 64, was photographing Palestinian farmers harvesting olives near Abu Falah, north-east of Ramallah, on Friday when she and several Palestinians were attacked.
Witnesses said masked Israeli settlers entered the area, beat the group and took Levine’s passport, telephone, wallet and camera equipment. The attackers were armed with bottles and slingshots, according to accounts of the incident.
Levine said she was kicked for about 10 minutes as she tried to hold on to her cameras and bag. Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who witnessed the assault, said she was in “very, very bad shape” and struggled to get up from the ground.
She was taken to hospital in Ramallah, where she underwent surgery after a finger was nearly severed. Her daughter said Levine also suffered a broken rib, several broken vertebrae and cuts.
Huckabee’s intervention came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Palestinians or “far-left” activists could have been responsible for the attack on Levine and others. Huckabee did not directly identify the alleged attackers as settlers in his comments.
The US State Department condemned what it called “criminal violence by any party”, using more cautious language about the assault on the American journalist.
Huckabee, a strong supporter of Israel appointed by US President Donald Trump, has previously criticised attacks by Israeli settlers against Americans. In September, he met Palestinian-Americans in the occupied West Bank town of Turmus Aya to hear accounts of settler violence, and in August described a prolonged settler siege as an “act of terror”.
