In Netanyahu’s Israel, where surveillance is everywhere, for paradoxical reasons, there are often no cameras that record the state’s violence toward non-combatants and civilians. Many incidents, as in several European countries of the 1930s, or in the American South in the 1960s (and later) are usually reported as arrests, and sometimes killings of “undesirables,” “criminals,” or “terrorist sympathizers,” When excessive violence against a Palestinian is actually caught on camera, it is either given the “silent treatment,” or, should that fail, dismissed by insinuations that the victims are Hamas-related. At best, it will be treated as a case of unfortunate, though unavoidable, “collateral damage.” But what about the situation, becoming more frequent, though still rare—when the violence to a non-Palestinian is caught on camera? Then, the matter is referred to as “alleged” and comes “under investigation,” which investigation goes on, and on…

With the assault, two days ago, on war photojournalist Heidi Levine (both American and Jewish), her rescue by Palestinians caught on video, and her testimony as to the beating and injuries that she suffered from the Israeli settlers who had come armed to the Palestinian olive grove to beat them, as they harvested their crop— that demanded “special treatment.” Netanyahu asserted, in a statement issued by his office, that everything is unclear, and that somehow (armed) “Israeli youths” were “confronted” by Arabs as they happened to end up in the middle of a West Bank olive grove harvest. Netanyahu took umbrage: “The facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation... We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.”

The Times of Israel reported today that “some 80 settlers, many of them masked and some of them carrying gas canisters, descended from a hill to the terraced olive grove and began throwing rocks and beating Palestinians and accompanying activists, as well as Levine. Levine said the perpetrators—armed with bottles and slingshots—'were kicking me for like 10 minutes and I was trying to hold onto my cameras and my bag.’ She said her helmet and protective vest, which was marked ‘PRESS,” likely saved her from more serious injuries. Levine said the attack ended when her Palestinian colleagues intervened, after which, medics rushed her in an ambulance to a clinic in Abu Falah... In footage, the photojournalist was seen at one point lying on the ground, as masked individuals beat her with sticks before fleeing the scene.” They also made sure to steal her camera.