Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old veteran photographer for Agence France-Presse in Palestine, was covering the olive harvest near the northern West Bank village of Aqraba on October 6 when a group of Israeli settlers attacked him. As he tried to climb into a car clearly marked "Press," two men jumped on him and beat him repeatedly with the butts of their rifles. Ashtiyeh suffered bruises to his head and torso and was taken to hospital by ambulance.
The beating took place in view of about a dozen armed Israeli soldiers, according to witnesses, Ashtiyeh's family, and fellow journalists. The soldiers did not intervene. Ashtiyeh is a Palestinian who has photographed the West Bank for AFP for years.
Before the beating, Ashtiyeh and fellow AFP photographer John Wessels were filming the olive harvest from a hilltop when they noticed an Israeli soldier detaining a Palestinian man. A quad bike then raced toward the journalists, and a man on it opened live fire. One Palestinian dropped to the ground with a gunshot wound to the foot, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and was also hospitalized.
After the live fire, at least six other people rushed toward the two AFP journalists, firing their guns. The press markings on the journalists and their vehicle offered no protection. AFP confirmed to French daily Le Monde that Ashtiyeh was injured and transported to hospital.
The attack came at the start of the olive harvest season. As The Guardian reported, every year settlers attack Palestinian farmers trying to harvest their olives — an economic lifeline for the beleaguered Palestinian economy — with few legal consequences for the attackers. This harvest season has been particularly violent, with Israeli elections approaching at the end of the month.
Israel is set to hold elections on October 27. Against that political backdrop, the olive harvest in the West Bank is becoming the most dangerous season of the year: journalists, farmers, and solidarity activists are all on the list of targets. Ashtiyeh's assault is one episode in a wider wave of violence — the same week saw arson, theft of harvested olives, and attacks on farmers at groves across the West Bank.