Netanyahu shields settlers who beat Washington Post's Heidi Levine

By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit · October 18, 2026

Benjamin Netanyahu's attempt to blame Palestinians for the brutal attack on journalist Heidi Levine reveals a state-backed campaign of impunity that targets witnesses of land theft.

Benjamin Netanyahu is lying to save his skin. He claims the facts are unclear regarding the brutal beating of Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine. They are not unclear. They are documented. Masked settlers beat a 64-year-old woman for ten minutes while she covered the Palestinian olive harvest. This is not a random clash. It is a state-sponsored effort to blind the world to land theft.

A finger nearly detached and a lie told in power

The violence was precise and savage. Al Jazeera reports that settlers stormed the village of Abu Falah and beat Levine. They stole her passport, telephone, wallet, and equipment. Levine told Al Jazeera the attackers "were kicking me for like 10 minutes." She tried to hold onto her cameras and bag.

The physical cost was devastating. Levine underwent surgery on a finger that was nearly detached from her hand. She suffered a broken rib and multiple broken vertebrae. The Guardian reports she wore a flak jacket, helmet, and visible press markings. She told The Guardian that without her gear, she "probably wouldn’t even be here."

Netanyahu’s response was a masterclass in gaslighting. His office suggested the attack was the fault of Palestinians or "far-left" activists. Netanyahu is not seeking the truth. He is facing elections on October 27 and needs to please his pro-settlement right-wing base.

The machinery of land theft and silence

This attack did not happen in a vacuum. It happened during the annual Palestinian olive harvest. This is a season of systemic dispossession. Yesh Din reports that Israeli settlers have been involved in at least 170 attacks on Palestinians.

The state provides the map for this violence. New orders prohibit Palestinians from entering approximately 8,800 hectares of agricultural land, an increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, Peace Now reports the military decreased the land Israeli citizens were prohibited from entering.

The goal is simple. Clear the land. Steal the crop. Silence anyone who watches. When settlers beat a journalist, they are not just attacking a person. They are attacking a witness.

This is the same mechanism as the Death of Shireen Abu Akleh. The targeted violence against journalists wearing press markings in the West Bank, followed by official denials or shifts in blame, serves to silence witnesses of state violence. In both cases, the state used violence to erase the record and then used the podium to lie about it.

The theater of American outrage

Washington is playing its part in the play. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called the attack a "despicable act of terror" and demanded that the attackers "spend YRS in prison." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was "very disturbed" and asked Israel to "crack down" on settler violence.

Do not mistake this for a shift in policy. Huckabee and Netanyahu share an ideological alliance forged over decades. Huckabee has spent his career championing the total annexation of Palestinian land. Rubio has a long history of shielding Israeli settlement expansion from international condemnation.

Their outrage is a performance for the cameras. It is a rare friction in a partnership that usually grants settlers total impunity. They demand "prosecution" while supporting the very system that makes such prosecution impossible. They are asking the fox to investigate the theft of the hen house.

The Israeli Foreign Press Association has already called out this lawlessness. They noted that repeated calls for action have been ignored by Israeli authorities. The system is working exactly as intended. The settlers provide the violence, the military provides the cover, and the politicians provide the excuses.

The US State Department will quietly drop its pressure once the October 27 elections pass. We have seen this script before. The Israeli government will likely announce a nominal police investigation that results in zero indictments. This preserves the absolute impunity enjoyed by West Bank settlers. Justice for Heidi Levine would require more than a tweet from Huckabee. It would require the US to stop funding the machinery of dispossession. Until then, the "disturbing images" are just a cost of doing business for Netanyahu.

Netanyahu shields settlers who beat Washington Post's Heidi Levine

A finger nearly detached and a lie told in power

The machinery of land theft and silence

The theater of American outrage

Sources