Journalist Shares Firsthand Account of Surviving Brutal Israeli Settler Attack

We speak to independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who has recently returned from documenting Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Nathaniel describes being ambushed by settlers in October, on the first day of the olive harvest, in an attack that left one middle-aged Palestinian woman with a brain hemorrhage. “It was clear that this was a planned ambush,” says Nathaniel. “They were out for blood.” Earlier this week, the Israeli Cabinet approved 19 more settlements in the occupied West Bank. “What’s happening right now is these really violent settlers are going out into the fields. They’re stealing land from Palestinians,” explains Nathaniel. “[Then the government will] retroactively legalize the land that was stolen, and basically reward the violent settlers by giving them the stamp of state legitimacy.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: As the Israeli Cabinet approves another 19 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, we look now at “Israel’s archeological apartheid.” That’s the new piece by the New York-based journalist and writer Jasper Nathaniel, who recently returned from the occupied West Bank after months documenting Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians. He’s going to join us in a minute.

In October, Jasper Nathaniel was ambushed by settlers as he filmed an attack on Palestinian farmers in the village of Turmus Aya on the first day of the olive harvest. During the attack, a masked settler, Israeli settler, wielding a club, beat a 55-year-old woman unconscious. She was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage. This is Afaf Abu Alia describing being attacked.

AFAF ABU ALIA: [translated] We were picking olives. Then a vehicle passed by. It kept on going by. Then a woman started screaming, “Settlers!” And we didn’t see them. They were hiding between the olive trees. She told me, “Settlers! Settlers!” Then, me, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law and my son ran away from the area. …

I was looking around, and I saw around 20 settlers. And they started beating me on my head. I fell to the ground, and I couldn’t feel anything. They continued beating me. I didn’t see anyone. And then two people came and carried me.

AMY GOODMAN: Jasper Nathaniel and a group of Palestinians were also chased by a swarm of Israeli settlers just before. The settlers were carrying clubs.

JASPER NATHANIEL: Press! Press! American press! American press! Press!

They’re literally right behind us. He’s right here. He’s about to smash our window. There he is. Here he is. Get ready. There it is. Are the doors locked?

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about this and Israel’s de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, we’re joined now by Jasper Nathaniel, New York-based journalist who covers Israel’s occupation on his Substack, Infinite Jaz. He’s written extensively on state-backed settler violence and Israel’s use of archeology, interestingly, as a tool of annexation. His latest piece is “Israel’s archeological apartheid.”

I want to go back to that day. When was this that this took place, the attack on you and the attack on the woman who was left unconscious?

JASPER NATHANIEL: It was October 19th, so just about two months ago.

AMY GOODMAN: And explain exactly what happened, how you got to this area, what you were facing, who you were with.

JASPER NATHANIEL: So, it’s in a village called Turmus Aya, which, interestingly, is a 80 to 90% American citizen — citizens live in this village. And so, the reason I mention that —

AMY GOODMAN: You mean U.S. Israeli citizen settlers.

JASPER NATHANIEL: No, no, no, Palestinian American —

AMY GOODMAN: Ah.

JASPER NATHANIEL: — citizens living in this village. So, the village is actually largely built on the American economy, because a lot of the people who live there go back and forth. They have businesses in the U.S., and then they have — they maintain homes in their ancestral land in Turmus Aya. So, the person that I was with that day, he’s a farmer, and he’s also an attorney in Anaheim. So, you know, this is important, because these people should be protected by the U.S. Embassy, by the State Department, just as much as I should.

So, basically, the olive fields attached to Turmus Aya, which belong to the residents there, have been occupied by these really violent settlers over the past couple of months. And anytime farmers have tried to get to their land, they’ve been attacked. And so, this year for the olive harvest, which is a really important event every year for Palestinians, both because there’s a sort of deeper significance to it, but also because it’s their livelihood — the olive harvest this year, they decided to all go out together as one group, in hopes that they would have protection in numbers, basically. And so, I was embedded with the Palestinian farmers on that day, on October 19th.

And, basically, what happened was, as soon as we started driving into the olive fields in a sort of caravan, a settler, who I later learned is a sort of infamous leader of the local violent settlers, stood in the middle of the road, brandished his pistol, pointed it at us and was talking on his cellphone. And as he was talking, settlers started appearing behind him. And so, we understood, OK, they know we’re here, they know we’re coming, and they’re prepared for us. So the caravan turned around, and we found another way into the olive fields. We were there for a bit. It was not a great harvest this year, mostly because of the weather and climate change.

So, then, when it was time to leave the olive fields on our way out, we were trapped. There were basically two ways out. One road, there were settlers blocking us. And the other road, there was an Israeli military jeep. And so, I was talking to the farmer that I was with, Yasser, and we decided that the safest bet would be for me to actually get out of the car and try to talk to the Israeli soldiers and —

AMY GOODMAN: You’re a Jewish American journalist.

JASPER NATHANIEL: I’m a Jewish American and a white American, frankly. And the person I was with is a Palestinian American who has brown skin, and so, you know, it’s, frankly, very dangerous to drive towards Israeli soldiers or even to walk towards them. And so, we decided, as, you know, the white Jewish American, they were less likely to shoot me, frankly.

And so, I walked up to the soldiers, and I was waving my arms, and they were aiming their rifles at me, which is just sort of standard procedure when soldiers talk to you in the West Bank. And I said to them, very clearly, “We need help getting out of the olive fields, because there are settlers blocking us in, who are not letting us out. We’re just trying to get back into the village of Turmus Aya.” They sort of questioned me. They wanted to know what I was doing there. I think they were kind of confused to see me in the olive fields. And finally, they said, “OK, get back in the car, and we’ll help you get out.”

AMY GOODMAN: “We’ll accompany you.”

JASPER NATHANIEL: Yes. And so, I get in the car with Yasser. We drive up towards them. And as we’re driving up, we see that same settler from earlier with the gun standing right next to them. And so, again, I stick my head out the window, and I say, “Are you going to help us get by this guy?” And they say, “Yes, yes. Just wait a minute. We’ll get him out of the way, and then we’ll go.” As soon as they say that, they get back in the car and speed away and leave us alone with this infamously violent settler, who’s known to the IDF, in part because they collaborate.

So, we then are thinking, “Well, this is a dangerous situation. We’ve just been left alone with this settler. Clearly, the soldiers just set us up or something.” And he’s talking on his cellphone again. But then he sort of — he’s on an ATV. He drives away. And so we think maybe we’re OK.

There’s another Palestinian there in his car, which has — he’s been attacked already. So, his windshield is smashed. His tires are slashed. And so, I get out of the car, and I offer to help push him so that he can sort of get to the ridge of the hill and roll back down into town. And as I’m pushing him, that’s when this huge mob of dozens of settlers, wearing masks, wielding clubs, sort of appear from the hills and start chasing us. So, that video that you see was taken by somebody on the other side of the olive fields. So, this is literally about three or four minutes after the IDF soldiers promised us safe passage out of the olive fields.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you’re then — they bring you up there. They desert you. And then, suddenly, these settlers come. Are they armed?

JASPER NATHANIEL: They were — well, the first guy that we saw had a pistol, and he was pointing it at us. You know, to the extent that I was able to get a good look at the mob that was chasing us, they were wielding these huge clubs.

And, you know, I think a lot of the time when people see, like, videos of settler attacks on the internet, it’s maybe a couple of settlers who show up and start harassing Palestinians, and then there’s a confrontation, and then they attack. But in this case, it was clear that this was a planned ambush. Again, it was the first day that the Palestinians had gone back into the olive fields that these settlers had occupied, and they showed up basically as an army with these clubs that had clearly been built as weapons. And they were there. They were out for blood.

AMY GOODMAN: They weren’t just sticks that they picked up.

JASPER NATHANIEL: Oh, no. I mean, these are — these are — I mean, they look like golf clubs almost. I mean, they have these big knots at the end that, you know, were able to break through our windshields.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about what happened, how you discovered this woman.

JASPER NATHANIEL: So, I am running away in that video that you show, and I reach the bottom of the hill, and —

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to show that video as you talk.

JASPER NATHANIEL: And when I get to bottom of the hill, Yasser, the guy who I was with before, is down in the car, and he’s stuck, though, because now there’s basically a bottleneck of cars trying to get out of the olive fields. And I jump into the car, and, you know, this mob is right behind me. One of the settlers, who was sort of out in front, really big guy with a big club, wearing a mask, is right behind us. He smashes through our rear windshield.

AMY GOODMAN: With the club.

JASPER NATHANIEL: With the club, five or six times. And again, we were stuck. And so, I mean, both Yasser and I thought these guys are going to drag us out of the car, and who knows what’s going to happen? And I should say, a couple kilometers away, a 20-year-old Palestinian American, Sayfollah Musallet, was beaten to death by a mob just like this in his olive fields. And so, this was sort of on my mind as this was happening, that this is how it happens. The guy smashes through our windshield, and then he actually runs out in front. There’s still a huge mob behind him sort of showering us with rocks and beating cars, lighting cars on fire.

And then we see, out in front, a woman, maybe 30 or 40 feet away, standing under an olive tree. And she had been there picking olives as, you know, part of the harvest. And the settler just sort of beelines right to her. And, I mean, it was the single most heinous act of violence I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve seen a fair amount in the West Bank. I mean, he clubbed her once, knocked her completely unconscious, and then he —

AMY GOODMAN: Clubbed her head?

JASPER NATHANIEL: Yes. And then he stood over her body and struck her twice more in the head while she was down. And then the mob kept running, throwing rocks. Yeah, I mean, it was just a full-on attack, basically.

AMY GOODMAN: And how did she survive?

JASPER NATHANIEL: So, I got out —

AMY GOODMAN: We just played the clip of her in the hospital.

JASPER NATHANIEL: Yeah. So, I got out of the car, and there were two other Palestinian guys, and we basically ran to her and helped carry her to safety into another car. And she was rushed to the hospital, in addition to a couple other people who were also severely wounded. And she was in a coma for several days. I mean, she had a brain bleed, and it was — it was touch and go, is my understanding.

AMY GOODMAN: So, we only have three minutes, and I want to make sure we get all aspects of this story in. What did the Israeli government say at that point? And how did the story change?

JASPER NATHANIEL: So, immediately — you know, I had obviously filmed it and shared it, and it started to go a bit viral, and the Israeli government immediately put in a statement that the IDF arrived at the scene of a confrontation and dispersed it. And I can just say that that is categorically untrue. Not only did they not arrive, but they were there right before it started, before leaving. And so, the Israeli military did absolutely nothing.

And then, the last thing I’ll say is just, the next day, I was back in the olive fields, and there was enough outrage that there was a sort of nominal investigation happening on the ground. The soldiers, Israeli soldiers, and police officers who were there doing this investigation were accompanied by the settler with the gun, who we understand to be a leader of the local settlement.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what happened when your video got out?

JASPER NATHANIEL: I mean, it drove enough outrage that I think it sort of forced the Israeli authorities to act in some way to — to, you know, act like they are doing something to crack down on this violence. And actually, a couple weeks later, the man who clubbed the woman was actually arrested. But they’ve, you know, done nothing to dismantle the network of settler terrorists there.

AMY GOODMAN: Which brings us to that larger point, how this relates to settler violence —

JASPER NATHANIEL: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — in the West Bank and what’s happening now with Bezalel Smotrich.

JASPER NATHANIEL: Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, a little context on what’s happening in the West Bank right now and why this is happening is that Smotrich basically pulled off a bureaucratic coup to take over control of West Bank governance and install other settler ideologues who can, you know, run all the bureaucratic processes to approve new settlements, basically.

And so, what’s happening right now is these really violent settlers are going out into the fields. They’re stealing land from Palestinians, attacking people. Every once in a while, the Israeli government will condemn them. But then what happens is they turn around, and they retroactively legalize the land that was stolen, and basically reward the violent settlers by giving them the state of — the stamp of state legitimacy. And then, you know, within weeks, months, years, you have a new settlement right there, where the violent settlers had, you know, gone out and stolen the land.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to do Part 2 of this conversation and post it online at democracynow.org, where I’m going to ask you about Mohammed Ibrahim, the Palestinian American teenager released from an Israeli military prison in late November after more than nine months in custody without trial, Palestinian American. You’ve just come from Florida, where you spent time with him. Jasper Nathaniel, New York-based writer and reporter who covers Israel’s occupation of the West Bank on his Substack called Infinite Jaz. And we’ll talk about your new piece, “Israel’s archeological apartheid.”

That does it for our show. A happy birthday to Yusra Razouki! We have job openings at Democracy Now! for video news production and digital fellowship programs. Go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.