Terrorists in the West Bank: Settler violence and the excusing hand

The persistent violence from Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank has become such common fare it risks becoming banal. Unfortunately, it takes events such as those befalling veteran photojournalist Heidi Levine of The Washington Post and European diplomats to return the attention to something that is not only grotesque but programmatic. On 16th October, while covering the annual olive harvest in the West Bank Levine, fellow journalists and a group of Palestinians became the ripe targets of Israeli settlers.  The auguries of violence were already present: over the course of 24 days since the season commenced, 125 physical attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters had been reported.  After an initial gathering at a hilltop in […]