TAYBEH, West Bank — In footage of Saturday’s attack on a European diplomatic delegation here, a member of the group lies on the ground. Army Radio, as Anadolu relayed it, identified him as Bernard Boudot, a French mayor; CBS News spells the name Baudoux.
Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, said Israeli settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general in Taybeh during the West Bank olive harvest, and wrote that “a French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged.” Israel’s military agreed on the core fact. It said diplomatic representatives were “attacked by Israeli rioters,” CBS reported, and added that the visit had not been coordinated with it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office struck a different note. It urged caution, saying “the more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence,” that the images alone do not establish “the complete sequence of events or individual responsibility,” and that the reports came amid “a coordinated campaign to smear Israel.” Israel’s police and army are investigating an attack that the prime minister’s office is questioning.
The statement, CBS News reported, also said the delegation entered “a sensitive area with a history of confrontations” without coordinating with the army, and said Baudoux had raised a Palestinian flag over a municipal building, “prompting French authorities to order its removal.” It does not say why that bears on whether he was assaulted. Poland’s foreign ministry said, per the same report, that “there is no indication that they were specifically targeted.”
Anadolu, citing Israeli Army Radio, reported that activists with the delegation sent the army’s operations room the location and video evidence two minutes after the attack began, and that no army or police force arrived for three hours after the report was filed. TEH has not seen the original Army Radio report.
Police opened an investigation and notified the Foreign Ministry to help find the diplomats, take statements and identify the attackers, Xinhua reported. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned “the serious acts of violence committed by Israeli rioters in the Taybeh area.” Taybeh Mayor Suleiman Khourieh told Anadolu the attack was “a flagrant violation of the sanctity of diplomatic and humanitarian work.”
Prevot said Belgium would keep pressing for EU sanctions against “those responsible for this violence and those who support them.” The reports read for this article name no suspect and record no arrest. Why a civilian report that reached the army’s operations room produced no response for three hours is a question the reports read for this article do not answer.
