Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine has described how Israeli settlers knocked her down, kicked her and struck her with sticks during an attack last week.
Speaking to CNN on Thursday after leaving hospital in Israel, Levine said the experience had deepened her understanding of the violence Palestinians face.
What hurt most, she said, was that she could now “really understand what others have gone through, what Palestinian women, children, men have gone through”.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for all the victims that have gone through the same ordeal and are living with the threat of this violence on a daily basis,” she said.
Levine recounted the moments before the assault: “There was tear gas, there was gunfire. From what I understand, a man was shot; a Palestinian man was shot in the leg, and the settlers charged forward,” she told CNN.
“I was thrown to the ground… They just kept kicking me and hitting me with sticks, and it just kept going on and on. And then I actually thought, okay, maybe I’ll just play dead and pretend I’m dead, and they’ll stop and they’ll leave me alone.”
She said the attack had strengthened her “commitment to continue working to try to make a difference”.