The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the assault by illegal Israeli settlers on Palestinian farmers and Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine in the illegally-occupied West Bank village of Abu Falah.
SEE: Palestinians and Washington Post photographer attacked in West Bank – The Washington Post
According to reports, dozens of masked and armed Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians engaged in the traditional annual olive harvest, setting fire to property and beating harvesters. Levine, who was clearly marked as a member of the press, was reportedly beaten, kicked, and robbed of her equipment by illegal settlers while covering the assault. She was subsequently hospitalized with injuries.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“We strongly condemn this brutal, unprovoked assault by illegal Israeli settlers on a photojournalist with The Washington Post and Palestinian olive harvesters. We also condemn the Israeli soldiers who enabled this violence and then pursued Palestinians who tried to protect Heidi Levine from the settler terrorists. The fact that a Washington Post journalist is not safe is the latest sign that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are certainly not safe from such acts of terrorism. This horrific violence is part of a systemic, state-backed campaign of terror designed to drive Palestinians from their land and suppress the documentation of ongoing human rights abuses in the illegally-occupied West Bank. Many of these settlers also carry American-made assault rifles provided by the Israeli government and funded by the American taxpayer. The Trump administration, Congress and the international community must hold the Israeli government and the settler terrorists it enables accountable for these escalating crimes against civilians and journalists.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]