Guardian footage captured West Bank attack on French mayor 22 seconds before he was knocked down
A Guardian reporter filmed masked militants moments before they attacked a delegation including Bernard Baudoux, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, in the West Bank town of Taybeh on Saturday. Metadata shows 22 seconds between footage of Baudoux remonstrating with the attackers and images of him on the ground.
An unpaved village road lined with olive trees in the West Bank hills, seen from behind a lone figure walking away down the slope.
The West Bank attack on French mayor Bernard Baudoux was recorded by a Guardian reporter who was present in Taybeh when masked Israeli militants sped up a hill to attack a delegation of European diplomats and French visitors, seconds before the assault began. The footage, and the 22-second timeline embedded in its metadata, has since become the focus of a dispute between the newsroom's evidence and Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
What the footage shows
The camera caught the mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries in northern France moments before he was knocked down, then showed him on the ground grimacing in pain. According to the file's metadata, just 22 seconds separate the last shot of Baudoux remonstrating with his attackers from footage of him slumped on the ground.
The delegation was identifiable as it moved through the town: the cars carried diplomatic plates, and Baudoux was wearing his mayor's sash of office, apparently making him a target for his nationality.
How the attack unfolded
The delegation had spent the morning in the Palestinian town of Taybeh harvesting olives alongside Palestinian grove owners as part of a visit by European diplomats. The sequence that followed, as reported by the Guardian, went like this:
- Shortly after 1pm, the group was warned that settlers had attacked Palestinians harvesting olives nearby, and decided to leave.
- Baudoux, escorted by diplomatic security alongside his wife and Vincent Dollmann, the archbishop of Cambrai, was approaching an SUV when the confrontation began.
- Eyewitnesses said one attacker aggressively shouted "France, France" before pushing Baudoux to the ground.
- As the vehicle drove off, settlers attacked it, and the force of their blows smashed one of the reinforced windows at the back of the car.
Netanyahu's office dismisses the evidence
Hours after the attack, the Israeli prime minister's office posted a response with the all-caps headline "Serious accusations require serious evidence", dismissing the video and photo material from Taybeh.
Serious accusations require serious evidence
In its statement, the office said: "These images alone do not establish the complete sequence of events or individual responsibility", and warned of what it called a coordinated campaign to smear Israel. It also cast doubt on the integrity of the senior French, Belgian and Polish diplomats based in Jerusalem, as well as the Catholic clergy, who witnessed the attack.
Previous day attack and ex-diplomats' protest
The Taybeh assault came a day after American photojournalist Heidi Levine was hospitalised following what the report described as a brutal attack by Israeli militants blocking the Palestinian olive harvest in another village. Netanyahu's office described that episode as an "alleged assault" and a "disputed incident" whose facts, it said, remain unclear and are under investigation.
On Sunday, more than a dozen of Israel's top former diplomats - among them two former directors general, a deputy director general and several ambassadors - gathered outside the foreign ministry in Jerusalem in protest. One banner carried the message: "Bibi [Netanyahu], foreign minister [Gideon] Sa'ar. Stop Jewish Terrorism. It's in your hands."
Netanyahu's office, hours after the attack, maintained that the images from Taybeh did not establish individual responsibility.
