Israel releases video of French diplomat striking police officer

Israel's government released video footage on Sunday of a French official striking a police officer during a clash between security forces, diplomats, activists and aid workers in the West Bank as tensions mounted over Friday's incident.

On Saturday Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, demanded an explanation from the Israeli authorities about the confrontation, in which Israel's army confiscated a lorry bringing tents to homeless Bedouin Palestinians.

Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian organisations and individuals circulated video clips and photographs of the clash on YouTube and Twitter over the weekend that upheld different versions of who was to blame in the clash.

The confrontation occurred when Israeli army and police stopped an aid convoy led by French humanitarian group Acted from delivering tents to about 100 Palestinians in the northern Jordan Valley who had been made homeless last week when the Israeli army bulldozed their hamlet.

The Israeli Defence Force used stun grenades to subdue the group, which included diplomats from five European countries, the EU, Australia, Brazil, and the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, along with the aid officials and Palestinian activists who were on the scene.

Witnesses told the Financial Times that Marion Castaing, the French diplomat, was yanked from the lorry and ended up on the ground. Photos released by pro-Palestinian activists over the weekend showed Ms Castaing lying on the ground, with the butt of an IDF officer's gun pointing downward near her face.

Pro-Palestinian activists deplored what they said was heavy-handed treatment by Israeli soldiers and police of a humanitarian aid convoy.

"The EU underlines the importance of unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance and the applicability of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory," Ms Ashton said on Saturday.

On Sunday Israel's foreign ministry released a film clip titled "French diplomat Marion Castaing hitting an Israeli police officer", which shows a woman shoving a uniformed man in the face.

The IDF, in a Twitter post linked to its blog with the hashtag #VisualLies, carried a captioned version of the picture, purporting to show that the officer's feet were not facing Ms Castaing, and that the muzzle of his gun was pointing at his own feet, not the French diplomat's head.

The incident is testing the already tense relations between Israel and the EU, which is cutting off funding for Israeli institutions with business in the occupied West Bank, and plans to begin labelling goods sold in Europe that are made there. Israel's government said Friday's incident threatened progress on peace talks with the Palestinians.

"We think there's some explaining at minimum to be done by the Europeans," said Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry. "If I punched an American police officer in the face I [would] hate to see what the reaction would be."

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