Netanyahu’s office does not condemn attack on European diplomats, blames a campaign

TEL AVIV: Instead of arresting the Jewish settlers who attacked European diplomats travelling in a convoy in the occupied West Bank, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Samir campaign, saying the campaign exists only to defame Jewish settlers.

According to a foreign news agency, the statement was issued after the vehicles of European diplomats passing through the occupied West Bank, and the diplomats travelling in them, came under attack by violent Jewish settlers. News that a French mayor had been injured in the incident also spread on social media.

The statement issued by the Israeli prime minister’s office did not condemn the regrettable incident. Instead, it portrayed the Jewish settlers as victims, saying they were being defamed.

In the statement, the prime minister’s office alleged that the campaign called Samir was carrying out such criminal acts to create suspicion against Jewish settlers, so that the circumstances of the attack on European diplomats could be turned towards the settlers.

In this context, Netanyahu chose to stand with the settlers rather than condemn them or announce arrests, even though they had targeted the convoy of a delegation of diplomats from European countries.

Settler attacks

Under Netanyahu’s government, Jewish settlers have made violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank routine. As these incidents have become more serious and frequent, voices of condemnation have begun to rise from the United States and Europe as well.

The statement alleged that the campaign was targeting settlers living in Jewish religious areas as part of a coordinated drive, so that sensational headlines could appear in newspapers during the olive harvest season. The statement used Jewish religious names for the occupied West Bank.

It has become the settlers’ routine to extend their attacks to orchards when the olive crop ripens, so that Palestinians cannot pick olives from their own groves.