The prime minister isn’t convinced
On Saturday night, hours after masked settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats in the West Bank village of Taybeh, Israel’s prime minister weighed in — and broke sharply from his own military. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office published a statement on X saying there was no “compelling evidence” that the attack happened the way the diplomats described it, and suggested the reports were part of a “coordinated campaign to smear Israel.”
“We urge caution before drawing conclusions from today’s reports that European diplomats were attacked by masked Israelis in Judea and Samaria,” the Prime Minister’s Office said, using the biblical name for the West Bank. “Any violence against diplomats is unacceptable. The more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence.”
What happened in Taybeh
The incident took place earlier on Saturday, October 17, in Taybeh — a largely Christian village near Ramallah in the West Bank. Seven masked settlers arrived on all-terrain vehicles, surrounded a diplomatic convoy carrying representatives from France, Belgium, and Poland, demanded to see their identification documents, and attacked the cars. Video from the scene showed one of the vehicles pelted with stones, its window smashed. One diplomat was seen lying on the ground. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, 78, of the northern town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was assaulted; Belgium said its consul general was among those attacked, though not personally hurt.
The diplomats had come to observe the olive harvest, a period that has seen near-daily settler attacks on Palestinian farmers across the West Bank. A day earlier, veteran Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten by settlers during the harvest start and needed surgery for a broken vertebra — an attack Netanyahu also cast doubt on.
His own military disagrees
The Israel Defense Forces did not hedge. “The IDF strongly condemns the severe act of violence that took place in the area of Taybeh, during which diplomatic representatives were attacked by Israeli rioters,” the military said, while noting the visit had not been coordinated with the army. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar followed with a rare condemnation of settlers: “I strongly condemn the severe acts of violence by Israeli rioters in the area of Taybeh,” he said, adding that a police investigation was underway.
The prime minister’s office, by contrast, said the footage published so far proved nothing. “These images alone do not establish the complete sequence of events or individual responsibility,” the statement said. “Those circumstances remain under investigation.”
What the statement claimed
The PMO’s statement laid out what it called the facts: that the diplomats had “entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination with the IDF”; that the delegation included Baudoux, whom it identified as a French Communist Party mayor who had previously raised a Palestinian flag over his municipal building in France, prompting French authorities to order its removal; and that the footage showed “masked individuals approaching a diplomatic vehicle, while other images show a broken window and someone lying on the ground.”
“These reports come amid concerns about a coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest,” the office said, warning that “we may see further allegations in the coming days” and that “by the time the evidence is fully examined, the reputational damage from premature conclusions may already be done.”
Separately, in an interview with i24 on Saturday evening, Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to young people “taking the law into their own hands” but added: “Many times, we’ve been told that certain things happened, and afterward it turned out that they didn’t happen exactly as described.”
Europe’s response
Brussels did not wait for the investigation. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and said Belgium would keep pressing for European Union sanctions against violent settlers and those who support them. “Impunity for violent settlers must end,” he said. The Palestinian Authority’s vice president, Hussein al-Sheikh, called on the international community to hold Israel responsible and “impose international protection for the Palestinian people.”
For the full background on Saturday’s attack itself, see our earlier report: Masked Settlers Attack European Diplomats at West Bank Olive Harvest — Belgian Consul Hurt, Brussels Cries “Impunity”.
Why this matters beyond the West Bank
It is one thing for a government to say it is investigating an attack. It is another for a prime minister to publicly dispute his own military’s account of an incident captured on video — and to do so about an attack on diplomats from three European states, two of them NATO allies. Belgium, France, and Poland are not bystanders here; they are countries whose nationals were harmed, and whose foreign ministries are now demanding accountability. When Netanyahu frames the reports as part of an anti-Israel campaign, he is not just defending settlers — he is telling European capitals that their diplomats’ testimony counts for less than a police report not yet written.
The split also matters at home. The IDF condemned the attackers as “rioters”; the prime minister’s office questioned whether the attack even happened as described. That gap — between the military’s plain condemnation and the premier’s public skepticism — is the kind of thing European foreign ministers read carefully when they decide whether words like “impunity” are warranted. The investigation is still open, and the facts of what happened in Taybeh will eventually be established. But the argument about who gets to define them has already begun.
